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KICHARD

' SCHOMBUEGK'S

„ TRAVELS IN BRITISH GUIANA

1840-1844.

' Translated and Edited, with Geographical and General Indices,

and Route Maps,

WALTER E. ROTH,

B.A. (OXON), M.R.C.S., (ENG.,) L.R.C.P., (LOND.)

Stipendiary Magistra*^»of the Demerara River District, Author of "North-Queensland

Ethnography," " Animism and Folklore of the Guiana Indians," "Arts, Crafts and

Customs of the Guiana Indians," Etc.

VOL I.

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY.

DAILY CHRONICLE" OFFICE, MAIN STREET, GEORGETOWN.

1922.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

Some thirty years ago, when strolling along the ponds in the Queens-
land Botanic Gardens, Brisbane, I gazed in wonder and awe at the loveljr
Victoria Regia lilies which just then happened to be in bloom : I never
dreamed in those days that I should live to visit their native home in the
reaches of the upper Eupununi River. It was the first occasion that
gave me the name of Schomburgk, their discoverer, which thus fixed itself
upon my memory for all time.

Twenty years later, whilst annotating the literature bearing on Gui-
anese Ethnography, I had the pleasure of perusing in the original,
Kichard Schomburgk's Travels, and was at a loss to understand how
such a monumental, so interesting, and valuable a work, had become
forgotten as it were, and had never been "done into English," since-
it deserves to rank with the highest works on South American travel and
adventure.

On the other hand I regret to admit that almost every subsequent
writer on Guiana has stolen more or less of the subject matter without
acknowledgment. I read the work a second time, as few can escape doing,
who taste of its delights, and was determined that as soon as circum-
stances permitted I would try to convey some of the enjoyment and in-
struction that I had derived, to others favoured with less linguistic
advantages — surely the Creoles will be anxious to learn something reli-
able about the autochthonous natives,, the geology, mineralogy, and gen-
eral natural history of their own .country, set out as these are in as at-
tractive a form as Waterton's Wanderings or Defoe's immortal though
mythical Robinson Crusoe.

The translation itself has occupied the whole of my time that could
be spared from official duties during the past eighteen months. It would"
be idle to deny that I have met with many and many a difficult passage,
but these have been invariably cleared up by my friend, Rev. J. B,
Biezer, S.J., of the Santa Rosa Mission, Moruka River, who has invari-
ably and most ungrudgingly rendered me most valuable assistance and
encouragement.

The original work consists of three volumes, the first and second of
which are devoted to the narrative of the Travels proper: the third isr
practically a .catalogue of the fauna and flora, compiled jby various well-
known specialists. As a large proportion of the names in this compen-
dium are obsolete, as well as for other reasons, a translation of the third
volume has not been considered desirable. So again, the Appendix to the1
second volume, Consisting of a few short vocabularies, and an extract
from Missionary Quandt's Arawak Grammar have likewise been omitted.

iWith a view to bringing Schomburgk's record up to date, I have
Jteen in direct communication with the following three gentlemen whose
authority in their respective lines of research is unassailable — Mr. E. E.

EDITOR'S PREFACE. iL

Winter, B.Sc., Government Geological Surveyor, has thus supplied ine
with certain foot-notes (E.E.W.) relative to the geology and miner-
alogy; Dr. F. G. Eose, Government Bacteriologist, has similarly given
me valuable information (F.G.R.) with regard to Medicine and Sanita-
tion, while Mr. James Eodway, F.L.S., the Curator of the Museum and
our Colony's Historian (J..R.) has made many a sacrifice of time,
labour and patience in searching up the latest references to the natural
history and antiquities.

I have also to thank my son, Mr. Vincent Roth, Warden and Govern-
ment Surveyor at Arakaka, for drawing the maps and for the thankless
task of typing the whole MSS. for the printer. Strange to say, the great-
est portion of the typing was done in his boat whilst travelling, or at
night in camp, often to the huge wonder, and occasionally to the terror
of unsophisticated Indians who had never seen a typewriter before:
many of them descendants of those actually described in the subject
matter.

Unfortunately, on account of the alterations in the limits of the
colony as a result of the Boundary Commission, as well as owing to the
omissions and orthographical errors in the most recent (1913) Official
map, it is impossible to follow the large majority of Schomburgk's Travels
on it, while the Official map of 1875 is out of print. The original spellings
of the names as given in the Travels, etc., and 1875 map are accordingly
retained, their modern equivalents, if marked at all in the 1913 map, —
over fifty per cent, have been omitted — being shown in the Geographical
Index which has been inserted on the (Suggestion of Hon. C. Clementi.
The charts illustrating the respective journeys have been drawn from the
latter map with which so far as physiography is concerned, fault can
perhaps only be found in its mapping of the far western area.

Mr. S. M. Loquan, our wellrknown local photographer, has very
kindly supplied me with the negatives of the original illustrations.

For a succinct account of the labours of the brothers Schomburgk, I
would refer the reader to the Very interesting and instructive article
"The Schomburgks in Guiana" by Mr. James Rodway, F.L.S., published
in Timehri Vol. III., New Series 1889.

WALTER E. ROTH.

Georgetown,
July, 1920.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

British Guiana comprises an area of territory lying approximately
within eight degrees of latitude (1° — 9° N.) and five degrees of
longitude (57° — 62° W.). In the accompanying sketch-map, the inter-
latitudinal spaces of country are designated by the capital alphabetical

62'

60°59

57° f

SK£

ERRATA -VOL. I.

PAGE.
1
6

99
113
113
142
143
229
304

LINE.

23
21

2
13

6
28
10
11

14
21

from bottom for living read lying

than

that

from top

reputuation

reputation

bottom

honestly

dishonestly

Steyomgia

Stegomyia

probably

probable

Essequebo

Essequibo

Coralldendron

Corallodendron

top

above five

about five

Rhixoboleae

Rhizoboleae

Jaku

Yaku

Cumacka

Cumaka

bottom

Poiteani

Poiteaui

Mouut

Mount

top

Jakus

Yakus

Halicus

Halieus

Orinoko

Orinoco

letters A B C H, and the interlongitudinal portions by their

corresponding italic ones a b c /. Hence, any portion of the land

under consideration can be described through the combination of any
two of such letters: thus, the spots marked by a cross (x) and by a
nought (o) can be more or less accurately located as D& and Ge.

EDITOR'S PREFACE. iL

Winter, B.Sc., Government Geological Surveyor, has thus supplied me
with certain foot-notes (E.E.W.) relative to the geology and miner-
tilogy; Dr. F. G. Rose, Government Bacteriologist, has similarly given
me valuable information (F.G.R.) with regard to Medicine and Sanita-
tion, while Mr. James Rodway, F.L.S., the Curator of the Museum and
our Colony's Historian (J..R.) has made many a sacrifice of time,
labour and patience in searching up the latest references to the natural
history and antiquities.

I have also to thank my son, Mr. Vincent Roth, Warden and Govern-
ment Surveyor at Arakaka, for drawing the maps and for the thankless

of tvDinsr the whole MSS. for the printer. Strange to say, the great-

"The Schomburgks in Guiana77 by Mr. James Koawny, r.u.o., pmu«
in Timehri Vol. III., New Series 1889.

WALTER E. ROTH.
Georgetown,
July, 1920.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

SK£ TCH MAP

BRITISH GUIANA

letters A B C H, and the interlongitudinal portions by then-

corresponding italic ones a b c /. Hence, any portion of the land

under consideration can be described through the combination of any
two of such letters: thus, the spots marked by a cross (x) and by a
nought (o) can be more or less accurately located as D& and Ge.

11-

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

The official map of the Colony published in 1875 was based mainly
on the results of Sir Robert Schomburgk's discoveries: it is now out of
print and very scarce. That of 1913, the most recent, owing to its
omissions, orthographical errors and alterations is useless for tracing
the journeys described in the text. The 1846 map, to be occasionally
referred to, is the one drawn up by Sir Kobert and inserted at the end
of the second volume of his brother's "Travels."

The Index includes in its first column all the names to be found in
the 1875 map as well as those not so marked but mentioned in the text.

The abbreviations employed are as follows : —

C - Cataract, Fall, Rapids, Etc. I = Island.

L = Lake. M = Mountain, Hill, Range, Rocks, Etc.

P = Point. R - River, Creek, Stream, Channel, Waterway, Etc.

V - Village, Settlement, Mission, Plantation, Estate.

The second column lists the two, letter combinations indicating, by
latitude and longitude, the area wherein the re'quired place or spot may
be found on the map. The third contains the place-names as published
in the 1913 map and its leaflet, the so-called Corrected or Errata List
(C.L.) subsequently issued: where identical with those of the 1875 map,
the similarity is shown by the letters Ib., and where omitted the space
is left blank. The fourth column includes remaining remarks and
references to the sections in one or other volume of the present text.

W. E. R.

GEO GRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1918.

Aapow R.

ib.

Ababbo R.

Andabo

Abari R.

Abary

„ Itabbo ...

„ Itabo

Abary R.

ib.

Abenacari R. or Groote

Creek.

Albany-cary in i. 268

Aberiwiku C....

Abocotte R. ...

i. 666.

Aburakuni R.

Akurukuni

Acarabisi R. V.

Bb,

Akarabasi R.

Acassi R.

Acayu C.

See Accawai C,

Acayu I.

Accawai C.

Akaio

Acayu in 1846 map, i. 667.

Accobenang M.

Akobenang

Accourou R. ...

Akourou

Achramucra Rocks

Akaramukra

Aekar V.

Akar

Acotura R. ...

Actayou R. ...

Aktayau

Acuiwaugh C.

Akaiwang, Akaiwong

(C.L.)

Acurabo I. ...

Acuramatalli Rocks

Mistake for Akramallali

Acure R.

Akure

Aousi-andova I.

Acuyuro Point

Agatash V. ...

ib.

Ahara C. ...

Aharo in i. 710, 716.

Aikoni R.

Throughout teit and 1846

map. See Akawmni

Aikuwe M. ...

Aimutong M. or White M.

„ R. ...

Airopa R.

ii. 379

Airy Hall V....

Akaiwanna C.M.R.

ib.

Akaiwatta C ...

ib.

Akalikatabo I.

ib,

Akamaru M ...

Akawini i R. ...

ib.

See Aikoni

Akayekyuru R.

Akramallali C

ii. 781. See Acuramatalli

Akuina R.

Akenra

Akupautari V

ii 822, & 1846 map. Carib

V. below the Makaiku

Alapalisso R. ...

Alapaliso

Albany-cary R.

See Abenacari

Albion Canal...

Albion

Aliki P.R. ...

ib.

Amacura R. ...

Amakura

Amailah C.R.

Amaila

Amato^o, or Great

Channel

Amboiua Rock

Amileyah R. ...

? Anaida

Amissi Itabo...

Anabisi R.

iv.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Amueu Ranges

•

iil^l

Amoquock R.

Ainakwa

Amoro K. ,f.

Ampa B.V. ...

ib.

Ainucu or Parima L, ...

Ainuku

Amutu C.

Amatuk

Anaimaper V.

Anapari R. ...

Anaparie V. ...

ib. R.

Anapu-yeng M.

Anarabisi R. ...

Anarasso R. ...

Anora

Anarhoo R. ...

Ananu

Angel Custodio V.

Anira R.

Annai M. V. ...

Anna Regina V.

Annawai R. ...

Wenawai

Annay R. .«.

Annai

Ano.baro R. ...

Anodoolie R. ...

Anaturi

Anomorisi R....

Aourime Inlet

Apaegua C. I.

Apekwa

Aparnapo M. ...

Apamapa, ii 411

Apanachi R. ...

Apangwau R.

Apongwau

BT. of Wenamu.

Apangwau R....

Mistake for Apauwanga.

Apauwanga R.

A.pongwoBg

ii 463 ; br. of Caroni

Apayabo-Optayo M.

i. 830,

Apikiburu I. ...

Flat-rock

Apikong R. ...

Appaipong

Aping R.

Eping

Apiniau R. or Caphiwuin

Apinan, Apiniau (C.L.)

Apoacfca R. ...

? Hubudi

Apotoacuru R.

Apotoakuru

Apotree V.

Apoteri

Appa

See Appapara

Appakai R,

Apakai

Appapara R. ...

Juppaparu

Appa in i. 667, and 1846

Appaye M.

map.

Apqiana R

Apuru I. R. ...

Apoera

Apuyabanabo I.

Aquarapu R. V.

Akwarapu R.

Aquire R.

Aguirre

Aracasa C.

Arakabusa Mama

Araouna R.

Araguao I. Channel

ibl.

Araraatau R. ...

Aram i sari Irupacu or

Gluck I.

Arampa M. B.

ibR.

Aranka R. ...

Araparu R. ...

Arabopo

See Arapu,

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875 1913

Arapiaku R....

Arapaiko, Arapiako

Arapiacro in ii 798.

(C.L.)

Arapiro Cuyaba P.

D<3

Arapu R.

A mistake for Araparu.

Araquai R.

Arakwai

Ararisi R.

Arascuca M. ...

Dome M. (Arasuka)

A Mistake for Arasuca.

Arasuca M.

Arasuka

Aratiari C.

Arature R.

Araturi in i 416.

Arawanna Rock

In 1846 map. (Fb).ii338.

Arawapai R. ...

Waini

See footnote to Waini R.

Arawasi I.

Arawajam V. ...

In 1846 map, though spelt

Arawayang in ii 431, 630

Archiecullock V.

Archimeper H.

Archimepir

Ardakeur M.

Areoajo R.

Arikanang V.

Arikataro R. ...

Kurra-Kurra

Arikita M.

Arimisse R. ...

Anmisu

Arinda, Post ...

Aripai R*.

V. in ii 756

Arissaraboo R.

Arisarabo

Arissaro C.

Arisaru

Ariasaro M. ...

Arisaru

Arissoa, R.

Arisoa or Suzanne

Aritacca C-

Aritaka

Aritaka C.

Aritacca C in i 693, 703,

781

AritapuC. or Lord

Stanley's C.

Ariwaiyang M.

Arawayang in map on

frontispiece to Vol. I.

Armatani R. ...

Arnick R.

Arnik

Arnie R.

A.rni

Arobeya R.

Aroabaia

Arobaya in ii 975

Arocari R.

Arawari

Aroma R.

Arauma

Arowawa R. ...

Ariwina or Arikabuka

Aroyawang Rock

Arraia R. V. . . .

Araia Itabu (Bd)

ii 824, 842 and 1846 map

Arraqua R: "...

Arrisaroo R. ...

Arisaru

Arroaky R. ...

Aroakai

Aruabuuicu I. ...

Aruaka Umatuba C.

Arrawak Matope

Mistake for A Bmatuba,

Aruan or Tokutu Inlet ...

Takutu Pond

Aruararua C.

ib.

Aruatiinau M.

ib.

Aruatintiku M.

ib.

Aruau R.

ib.

Arucabaru R ...

Aruguailo Channel

Aruka R.

ib.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Aruma R.

ArunamayR. ... ...

Aranamai (Bd)

ii846

Aruparu R. ...

Aruta E.

Aruwai C.

ib or Kurabana

Arwarimatta Bluff

11647

Asacota V. R.

Assakata (Be)

1 587, ii 890, 899 and in

1846 map.

Ascida Vaya Inlet

Asecura V.

i 412. On the Otucimabo

Ashieparu K....

A&hiparu

A ssicuve Inlet

i 826, On the Rupununi

Assie R.

Assirikanna I. R.

Assura V.

Asura R.

Atacock I.

Ataima Channel

See Gaiina Cl'annel

Ataraipu M. ...

Aturiapu on 1846 map.

AthaR.

Atopani R. ...

i 305, near Cumaka

V-, Aruka R,

Atora V.

Altora

Aturiapuru R.

Aturona R.

Aunama R. V.

Aurantipu M,...

Arau

ii 650

Aureara or Oreala R. ...

Orealla

Aurora V.

Aurora (Bd)

i647

Aurouria R. ...

Arabour a

Au-uraparu M.

Auuru-paru

Au-uruparu in ii 19o,

and in 1846 map.

Avunavero C....

ib.

Awaeaparu R.

Misspelt Awaeapsru.

Awairaparu R.

Awarapialli

Awaramani R.

A warainatari M.

^warayarn V. ...

Intended for Arawayam

AwaricuruR. ...

Awarikuru

Tawarikua of the older

maps : see i 846

Awarra or Waruwau R.

Arariwau

Br. of Rupununi R.

AwarraR.

Awara

Br, of Arnacura R.

Awarra V.

Misspelt Awarru

Awarrawownow V.

Awarretequibi M.
Awarrimaui R.

Awarretequi in ii 699

Awendaparu R.

ib.

Awerrima R. ...

AyaBgcanna M.

Ayauganua

Ayangcatsibaug M.

I>a

Eastern portion of Iruar-

karuima M.

Ayangike M. R.

ib.

Azapu R.

Arabopo

Azidaia R.

Baboon I.

ib. Little and Big

•^

Badawareen R.

Buiura L'.

Biaia

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Bajo del Burro I.

Bakuiua R. ...

ib.

...

Bamberry's V.

Bamboo or Rappu R. ...

ib.

Bam iu, R.

ib.

Banimi R.

Banim

,|'

Barabara I. R.

Barabaxa R. ...

ib.

Baracara R, ...

Barakara R. and Mission

Barama R.

ib.

Barapang V. ...

Baribara R. ...

ib.

Barima P.

' . •

Barima R.

ib.

Barimani R. ...

Bar am an ni

Barrotika R. ...

Bartica

Barrow's. Sir J., or

Wotototobo 0.

ib.

Barlika Grove V.

Bartica

Barucaribana R.

•

Bassauaa, Catio

ib.

Bataria I.

Belle Alliance V.

Bemburu C.

Bembaru

Benhuri-bumocu

Benhori-bumoko

Berbice R.

. ib.

Berebisi R. ... . .. *

L ft bank Cuvuni

Berebisi R.

Big Arhnu

Right „

Berkutoni V....

Berlia

ii989

Bird I.

Birmingham or

Swarte Hock P.

Bisseroouy R....

Bissaruni

Bluff Point ...

Boca de Navios or

Great mouth of Orinoco

ib.

Bodali I.

BodetikaR. ..,

Boesel R. or Macouria R.

Makauria

Bouasica R. ...

Bouasika

Bonasika in i 669, and

1846 map,

Bonoima R. ...

Bononi R.

Benoni

Borisiri R.

Boerasiii

Borselen I.

ii 973,

Botanamo R. ...

Botuta R.

Bududa

Bianco, Kio ..

See Pariina R.

Brandwagt Cai al

Brandwegt R

Brenasi R.

Brothers. Three. I.

1251.

Brothers V. ...

Bubamaua C.

» f t *

yiii

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Buburi-bunacu Hills, I ...

S.e Benhun-bumocu.

BuckhaUV. ...

Buck Hall

Bunowow R. ...

Bunowau

Buonaparte or Snake I.

Buraburacocabra R.

Buria-banalle I.

i 248.

Burrabaye R.

Burrecurrua R.

Barrekurua

Burro-Burro R.

Burroparu R....

Burukutuauyari M.

Bulalruk-taba-ial

The 2nd u is omitted in

1875 map.

Buruwaiwini R.

Butcher's Canal

Buti-vanuru R.

ii 181 . Head of the Takutu

Cabalebo R. ...

Kabalebo

Capaleppo of Sir W.

Raleigh.

Cabarooda V....

Cabauer R. ...

Cabeiari R.

Kaboyari

Cabouria R. ...

Cabowera C. ...

Kabuwira

Cabuni R.

Kaburi

Caburi R.

Kapo^ri

Cacoparita R —

? Mobebaru

Cadiva V.

Cadui V.

i 666. In 1846 map.

Caieruni R. ...

Kairuni

Caiguao ...

Caino R.

Kaino

Cuino in ii 415, and 1846

map.

Cako R.

ITako

See note to Cuyara R,

Cakoparu R, ...

Kakaparu

Calabash Creek

Calabash Creek, Little

Calarucana L.

Kalarukana

Calishadaker M.

Kalishadaker

Callo C.

Caluhui R. ...

Cama R.

Kama

Camacabra

Kamakaora

Camacusa M. V.

Kamakusa

Camaikariba or Maycar R.

Maliudud,

Camaimura R.

Cauiaka V. ...

Camana M. ...

ii 387. See Carzaoa M.

Oamaranna M.

Camarapa R. ...

? Wamukarru

Camarazin M.

See Cumarazin

Camaria C. I.

Kamaria

Cataequear R.

Kamekwear

Cacnmoni R. ...

Kamuni

Camoa or Wanguwai R,

Kamoa

Camooda M. ...

Kamuda

Oamoodicapoora R.

Camowta C. ...

tob

Camoyepaugh..,

Sun R.^Rupununi, ii 708.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX, 1^

1875 1913

Camu R.

Kuma

Br. of Takutu

Camu or Sun R.

,, ,, Caphu

Camuran R. ...

Canaiyu C.

Kanaiyu

Canal, Nos. 1, 2, 3,

Canaru R.
Canaruck M. ...

Kunaruwau (Gc)
Konawaruli

ii 202 : in 1846 map,
Curamucu of 1846 map :

i. 729

Canaupang M.

Caneiina I. Channel

Canje R.

Ce.

Canoacaburi R.

Konakaburi

Kanakaburi (C L).

Cano Bassama or

\ >^ "^/

Wai4ca-cari Passage . . .

Canuku M.

Kanukn

Cunuku in 1875 map, ii

49. Older forms are Cono-

kon, Cumucuinu

Canyaballi V. R.

Kamaballi R,

Capaleppo or Cabalebi ...

See Cabalebo R.

Capaya R.

Bashar-wau (Kapaya)

ii40

Cape Nassau ...

Caphiwuin or Apiniau R.

Caphuwin, Caphiwuin

(CL)

Kaphu inii 927

Caphu R.

Kaffu in ii 941 : Kaphu or

Trombetas in 1846 map

Capoey R. L. ,..

Capouye in i 647

Capouye

See Capoey

Capuyena R. ...

Karowlieng R.

Carabaro I.

Karubaru

Carabiru C ...

Karabiru

Carabo R.

See Corabo

Caracara R.V.

Kara-Kara R.

Bv. of Ireng

Caracara R. ...

Kaiakara

„ ,, Demerara

CarakittaV. ... ... Ea

Caramang R. ...

See Carimani

Caramuzina M.

ib.

Carapa (paou) I.

Carapo Channel

Carapu R.

ib.

Carapu R.

Karapu

Carauringtipu M.

? Southern portion of

Irutipu M.

Cara-utta M. ...

Karainutta

ii 645.

Carawaimentow M.

Carawaimi in i 795, ii 714,

732, 909 : and in 1846

map.

Carawaimi M...

Ka: awaimentow

Carawaramu C.

Karawarambo

Caraweweowtow M.

Carchieparu R.

Carchiparu

Careawa or Caruawa R ...

Koriabo

Caremalambo I

Karemalambo

Carenacru V. ...

Caria I. R.

Karia I

Cariacabally R.

Caria-Caria Mission Stn.

i267.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Cariacu V.

Kariakau R. (Be)

V. in 1846 map: neither

V. nor R, iu 1875 map- i

665, ii 882,

Carighieri C. ...

Korehere

Carimamparu M.

Carimani R. ...

Kamarang

Carimani R. ii 632: also

Caramang R.

Carinambo V.

Kirinampo in 1846 map

and i 833

Ca.ripico R.

Cariry R.

Koriri

Carniep^ru R....

Kam paru

Carona C.

Karona

ii 17: wrongly spelt Caron;

in 1875 map

Caroni R.

Carotfa-satowa C.

Karowa-satowa

Carowouring R.

Karowrieug

Carowtibeu M.

Dl*

Karowiibeu

Carsona R.

Cartabo Point

Kartabu

Cartoone R. ...

K"artuni

Cartoonie R, V.

Kartuai

Cartowerie C....

Kartauri

Caruapu

Koriabo

Caruawa or Careawa R.

Koriabo

Carabung R. ...

Kurupung

Caruputa V. ...

Carutoka or Orotoko C.

Kuratoka Rapids

Curutoka in 1846 map

and ii 769.

Carzana M. ...

Mistake for Carnana.

Casowebie R.V.

Cassamapari R.

Cassato M. ...

See Cursato

Cassi or Turtle R.

Tiger

Ca&si-Attae C.M.R.

Kassi-attae

Ciissikityu or Yuawauri R.

Kassikaityu, Kassikityu

(C.LJ

Cassowa R.V....

Catharineasburg V.

Caticaboora R.

Katikabura

Cativau-uru or Scabuuk R.

See Catuau-aru

Catoparu R. ...

Katoparo

Catuau-aru R.

Kati-wau

Catua-auuru (ii 699) :

Catu-auuru (ii 67).

Catunariba V.

Cauaruwow R.

Kowari- wau

Cauratipu M.

Kaui-utipu in ii 642,645

and 1846 map.

Cau urua V. ...

ii 202. Wrongly spelt

Cua-urua in 1875 nup.

Cawulibav V.

Cay an I.

Cajcotiuy R. ...

Kaikotin

Caywaek V. ...

Kaywaek

Cebezic R.

Kebezik

Ceraquiparu R.

Chantilly I. ...

Cheinabiepping M, ,.. j Eb

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1918

Chemapeur R.

Chimepir

Chichi C.

ib.

Chipedarinow V.

Christianburg Saw Mill...

Fc
Cd

Christianburg

Coarawow V. ,.

•

Cinewynj R. ...

i 637. Small creek I£

mile above Akawitmi

creek : shewn in Bouch-

enroeder's map as

Zenewyne.

Cliff, The

The Klip (Cd.)

i649.

Coatsay R.

Coatyang Kityu, or Esse

•

quibo, or Sipu R.

ib.

Cobanatout C.

Kobanatuk

Cocali Point ...

Cocobeanaruwow V.

Cocoya C.

Kukui-paw(a)

Oohiua R.

Kwiakwi

Colie V.

Coinang R. ...

Komang

Comarikok R.

Kamarikak

Comparu R. ...

Kumaparu

Congoo R.

Kangu

Congrejos or Crab I.

Cangrejo or ib.

Coniapeur V.

Consego I. and Channel

Conterbisi R."...

Kontrabisi

Conumo R. ...

Cooliserabbo ...

Ku'is?rabo

Coomacaba M.

Coomacowrie R.

Kumakowri

Cooraaro R. ...

Coomlamana C.

Copaoa. R.

Kwapanna

Copang R.

Kopang

Corabo R.

ii 498, but Carabo in ii.

502 : a branch of the

Yawaira

Corentyne R.

Ee,

Courantyne

See ii 917 for Curitani etc.

Coreta R.

Korita (Dd.)

i 724, and m 1846 map.

Cori R.

Coroaduik R. ...

Kovoaduik.

Coronami Itabbo

Ccrowicurru R.

Cortuuharo R.

See Curtuahara.

Corua Oboro or Parrot I.

Robertson I.

Cosnequaboo R.

Kushekabra

Cossequaboo R%

Big Essekwabo

Left bank Demeraia R,

Cossequaboo R,

Rt ,. „ ,.

Cotinga R. ...

Kwating or ib.

ii 301. Christais of the

Cotoewow V.

Kutoewau

old Portuguese maps.

Couchman's V.

Counubulli R.

Kunubulli.

Oourahanna R.

Couricerite R.

Kuriserit

Couruabaroo R. ...

Kuruabaru

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Coustena P. ...

Cowaeng V. ...

Kowaeng

Cowmaroo C. ...

Kaumaru

Cowulibar E.

Coya R.

•

'f' •

Coyoni Passage

Cuvuwini E.

Crab 0.

ib.

Crab I. or Congrejos I.

ib. or Cangrejo I.

At mouth of Orinoco

Crab I.

ib.

Berbice.

Creiti. E.

Kereti

Creole I.

i. 262

Creole E.

Cromeparu E.

Krotaeparu

Crushiweyu E.

? Kurosaimo

Cua-urua V.

See Cau-urua

Cucuie M.

•Kukui

Cucuienam. M.

(?)Wokonmng

CucuyaE,

Kukui

Cuya ID ii 462, and 1846

map.

Cucuye M.

Cuiewah E. ...

Kuiewa

Cuino E.

SeeCaino E,

Cuipaiaa E, ...

Cuitaro E. ...

Kwitaro

Cuma V.

Cumacar E. ...

Cumacka-toto...

See Cumakatoto

Cumaka C.

Kumaka E. C.

Cumaka E. ...

Kumaka

Br of Barima

Cumaka E.

Coomacka, Kumaka

Br of Berbice

(C L.)

Cumaka V. ...

Kumaka

Cumaka Serrima ... Cd

Kiamaka Seritna

Cumakatoto or Yucuribi C Ed

Cunaackatoto in ii 772

Cumakiya Kirabagh

Cumamo M. E,

•

Cumuraring M.

Cumarazin M. ... j jga

Camarazin in ii 411. 416

Cumaro V. ...
Cumarru-marru E.

Dd
Dd

Kumara, Kumaru (C.L.)

Cumeareparu E.

Cumpara E. ...

Cuuiparuyamou E, V. ...
Cumucumu Eange

Kumparuyamou

See Canuku M,

Cumuti M.
Cur.ibari or Nunu E. ...

See Taquiari

Cunuku M. ...

See Canuku

Cupa E.

Cura M.

Curabelicabra E.

Gurabiri C. ...

Kurubiru Falls

Cura-Cura or Ekiuyeku E.

Ca,

Ekreku, Ekereku (C L.)

Curahari 1

^ • /

Curahbele C. ...

Curamucu M....
Curaparu E. ...
Curapua M. ...

Cc
Eb

Kuraparu

See Canaruck M5

Curasanie E ....

Kurasani

Curassawaka M, E

Kurawa E,

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

xiit

1875

1913

Curatakie M —

Curatawuiburi M.

Curati R.

Kurati, Sir-wau or

Kurati (C.L.)

Curaticuru I. ...

Urarikuru

Guratipu M. ...

Kaiatipu

Curatoka C. ...

ii 781: inEssequibo, above

Potaro R,

Ouratokoa or Warara

aburupug

Curatu-kiu V.

i 933. Curata-kyu in 1846

map,

Curawashinang V.

Curetama R. V.

Hubana

Curewaka R. ...

Curi E.

Curia P. ...

Curiau R.

ib.

Curibiru C. ...

Curicana I.

Curicuru P.

Curiebrong R.

K/uribrong

Curieparu JR. ...

Kuriparu

Curiopo I.

Kuriapo

Curipani R. ...

Kuripani

Curishiwini M.

Kuiishiwini

Curischiwini in ii 150

Curitani R, ...

ii 917: Curuni ii 952 :

Curuwuini ii 952, 958

959: Corentyue

Curiyopo R, ...

Curiyapo in text,

Curiye R, ...

Koriai (Be)

i 508 and in 1846 map

Ournayair C, ...

ii 699

Curoweak U, ...

Karoweak

Ciirruquah R,

Kurrukwa

Cursato, Cassato M,

Kusad

Ursato in ii 82

Cursorari R. ...

ii98

Curtuahara R,

Kurtuahara

See Cortuahara

Curua or Urua Mission

Curuatoko C. ...

H667

Curuauyari C,

Curucuku C, ...

Wrongly spelt Curucku

Curumu R, ...

ib, or Botouamo

Curuma in ii 654

Curuni R,

Kuruni and Sipariwiui

See Curitani R.

Curutoka C, ...

See Carutoka C,

Curuturaba C.

Turtruba

Curutza R,

Kurutza

Curuwuini R,...

See Curitani

Cutari R.

Kutari

Cutatarua C, ...

Kutata

ii 712, Cartatan or Coioua

ut' the Portuguese : Truan

of the Wapisianas

Cutoka R.,

Kuvatoka

Cutuabanado T,

Cutuan R,

Kutuau

Cutuau Wopuru M,

Kutuau

Cutzi R.

Utsbi

Cuya R,

See Cucuya R

xiv

GEOGRAPHICA L INDEX.

1875

Cuyara K,

Kwiara (Da) in conjunc-

ii 631, not in 1816 map.

tion with W. br of th«

Cako

Cuyariwaka C,

Kuyaliwak

Cuyuni R,

ib,

Cavma in Condamine's

map of m?

Cuyurara C, . . .

Cuyuwini E, ...

Kuyuwini

Diageraad, New. V. ...

Dabaru C

Dabinamo R,...

Tauruama

Dacara R.,

Dahalabani R.

Dchalibana

DahdaadV. ...

DalliR,

i -» •

Daniel V,

Danigo M,

i)ara C.

Dauparu R, ...

Dowbarwau

Davora R,

ii 509. Tributary of

Zururna branching into

Tupuring and Haiowa.

Deer M.
De Hoop, site of Mor avian

See \\aiking Epping.

Mission

Uemerara R, ...

Derrige Hill ...

Derriri

Diaha R,

Dilucko R, ...

Dochlopan M,

Dakubad (Gc)

ii 703, 714: Dochlapau in

1846 uiap

Dodowiua R, ...

Matuaparu

DohR,

Tauk

Dohte R,

ii 909. See Totohwow

Boo I,

Dowocaima ...

Towokaima

Doyanari R ...

Torani

Duburadi R, ...

Ducoura R,

Dakoura

Duida M.
Duquari C.

Dukwarri

ii 459, In 1846 map,

Duquari R.

Tukwan

•

Durham Castle V

Duriparu li. ...

Duruaru M. ...

Spelt Durura in ii 528

Duruau M.

? Tuhdiku M,

and in 1846 map,

Duruia
Duruwow V, ...

See Duruaru

Eberoabo R. ...
Ecabago R. ...

De
Cc

Heroabo Eberoabo (C.L)
Ekabago

•

Echachalack K,

EchilebarR. ...

EC-

Eckiiebar, Echilebar

Eckanabua R...

Ebinawina

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

xv.

1875

1913

EkrekuM.

Ekereku

Ekruyeku or Cura-Cura, E,

Ekreku, Ekereku (C.L.)

Elechiliqua V.

Elissa E.

Emataba

Sec Ematuba

Einatuba C. ...

Matope Fall

In 1846 map, i 667,

Embiparu K. ...

ib,

Emoy E,

ib,

Enapowou E,...

Chenapowu

Enawarike

Encaco V,

English Fort ...

Epenie E,

Ebini

Epikereek C. ...

Epira E.

ib.

Eramaturu M.

ii 429, 431

Erawanta E. ...

Arawanfa (Be)

i 666 : not in 1846 or 187 i

maps. See oote on Mazuvnm

Evematura M.

A mistake for Eramaturu

Erimitipu M. . . .
Eriwang E. ...

Wrongly spelt Edmitepu

Essequibo or Sipu E. or

ib.

Coatvaog Kityu ...

Etabo E. V. ...

Ewaboes V. ...

Fort I.

Fort Nassau ...

ib.

Fort New Guinea

Fort St. Andrew

Frendenroest V.

Fryer's C.

Furako M.

.ib.

G-aima and Ataima Channels

i .566, between Manai i

and Barima Eivers,

Gaspun E.

Geertruy V. ...

Georgetown ...

ib.

Giles' Wood Grant

Glasgow "V.

ib.

Gloucester V. ...

Gluck I. or ...

ib.

Aramisari Irupacu

Gongo E.

Goodall's C ...

ib.

Gordon P.

Governor Light's C.

ib.

Governor Sir J. C. Smyth's,

ib.

or Hawaii Wonotobo C.

Granite I.

Granite P. ... ...

Great Cataracts

Wonotobo etc

Groote or Abenacari R, ...

Croete

Guainia or Waini E.

Waipi

Guaian E,...

ib.

XYi.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Quidaru or Quitaro E, ...

Kwitaro

Guidiwau E. ...

ib.

Guranta M. ...

HaR.

ib,

Habacuyaha Gt Falls / ...

Habakuh

Habinalicuri E

Haiacker E. ...

Haiek

Haiama E.

ib.

Haiamahtewik M

Haiaiuatipu

Haiaparu E, ...

laparu

Haiawa (old Mission) ...

Haiowa

Haiawaculeh V.

Haimaruni E....

Haimuracabara E,

Haimorakabra

HaiowA C. I, ...

ib.

Haiowa R,

ib.

Haiowa V.

Haiowe E,

ii 509.

Halton I.

Hanaita E,

Anaida

Hanna Wohe E

Hampshire Fresh Water

Path

Haradoon E ...

Aduri

Harly Piaic E

i 638. East BankPomeroon

Harly Pyaks in Bouchen

roeder's map.

Haughetika M

Hawerorini E . . .

Hauvaruni

Used to be known locally

as Kobabai i.e. Leprosy

Creek

Hayinura Caboora E ...

Haimorakabra

Heherap V.

Heraculi E

Harak uli

Heteruni M E,

Hiaparu E,
Hibbeba E, ...

EC
Dd

Haiaparu
Hibibia

Hill Mission V

Kabakaburi

Hiraaroome E.

Hipeya V,

Hipaia

Hitia Hill

Hitia Sand Hills

Hobocuru E ...

Hubu

Hocoba K,

Hog I

Homeparu E ...

Honiouri.yiatzo M. ...

Honikuri-Y iatzo

ii027

Honobo E. V.

Hooboo K, „.

Kubudi (? V)

Hooge, ter

V f

i 688

Hoop, de
Hoorabea E. ...

Site of Moravian Mission

Hoororomouni E

Hororomoni Hill

Hope V.

•SL

Hope Town V,

Houerembo E.

Warimba

Hoya V.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

xvil

1875

1913

Hoyowanini R,
Hoyowuini Sanica R ...

Be
Be

FToyoma
Hoyonaa

Hubabu R, ... .».

HubanaV,

? Kwabanna

Hubucuru I ...

Huena R

Humeseta V ...

ii 411 Between the Zuappi

and Cuino

Huinirida M ...

Hyaqwa K

Haiakwa

Hymoracabra R

Ibini R

Ebini

Icalefo I

Kabalebo

Icurua R.

Ikuruwa

Ikopu R

Ikuribisi R

Ilamikipang M

IJlewanR

Uewang

Illuie Peak ...

Illui Peak

Iiuanicurru R

Kabosaina

Imataca I.V ...

Iinataka

Iraataca M (in two places)

Imataka

Imataca R

Imataka (Curucima)

Immapara Gt, C.

? Kakaraima

Imtnapura in 1846 map.

Imoti V

Imotai R

Inamute V

Inana R

Naoni

Inaparu R ... • ...

Ipelemouta V ...

Ipobe R

Ipomucena I ...

Ipotticurru R ...

Ipotaikuru

Ipuru R.

Ipuri

Iquari M.

Irawakenna V.

Iieng or Malm R.

ib.

Iriau R.

ib.

Iriqua M.

Irikwa

Iroma R.

ib.

Irribisinow V.

Iruarkaruima M.

Iwalkarima

Irwarkaruima ii 461

Irupiiba R. ...

Irutipu M.

Ilulipu

Iruwa B.

ib.

Ishitihanna R.

Issano or Waiamo R, ...

Issano

Itababo C. I.

ItitoJlia C, ...

Itaballi (lower)

Jtaballi m ii 781

Itabay V.

Itabbo Amissi

See Amissi Itabo

Itabou Hill ...

ii 1016

Itabuiro R. ...

ib.

Itafe C.

Itahwah R. ...

Itawa

Itaka(? R.) ...

Ithaca

xvitf, , GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.
1875 1913

Itakie C.

Itaki

Itatnine C.

ib.

Itariebaru R.

Iteribisce L, R.

Ituribisi R.

Iteriti K

Ituni E.

ib.

Iturihorihoya I.

Itury R.

Ituri

Iwatnalianna R.

Iwiritawan R.

Iwiwona R. ...

ib.

Jackiquocki V.

Juanimi M. ...

Jumpy or Makilikakoro I.

Makilikoro

Junco I. ...

ib.

Ka-arimapo R.

Koirimap (Bd.)

ii. 800 : in 1846 map.

Eabaiokitza M.

Kai-baio-kitza

ii927

Kabuitipu M...

Kapuitipu

Kapoitipu in text

Kaderbisi R. ...

ib.

Kaiawaka M —

ib.

Kaieteur Great Fall

ib.

Kai-iriteM. ...

ib.

Kaikutshi R. ...

Kaikushi-kabra

Kaimari M. ...

In 1846 map: see Koimara

Kaitan V. ...

i 657. Carib V. on Cuyuni

near Bartika Grove

Kaituma R. ...

ib.

Kaiwarkori R.

Kaiyiwa Cliffs

? Epira Cliffs.

Kakatiri I. ...

i248

Kakwai, Peak of

Banakaru

Kama Etin R. .v.

ib.

Kamaiba R. ...

Kamaiwawong V.

ii 462, 467. Br. of

Kukeoam

Kamwatta R....

ib.

Kanaima C.I.

ib. C.

Kanaima R. ...

ib. Itabu

Kaoo or Wai-icaripa I.

Haow

Kaphu
Kapoitipu
Karakanang R, V.

ib. R.

See Caphu
See Kabuitipu

Karamang R.

Karanang

Karamatahura C.

ib.

ii937

Karawaimentow M.

Carawaimi in 1846 map

Earimang, Heights of ...
Karnang R.
Kashawaicurru R,

Eb
Be

Karanang Hills
Karanang

and throughout text,

Kashwima M,

Kaurutipu M.
Kenukawai M,

ib.

See Cauratipu

Kerkanama R.

Kesterbrake C,

Kibilibiri R. ...

KibJiberu

Br, of Wieronie

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

xix.

1875

1913

Kibilibiri R,...

ib.

Br. of Berbice

Kiblerie Mis&icn ...

Kibileri V,

Kimbia R,

ib.

Khnbia R. unnamed lake on

Abaribana L.

Kimpia R

Kinaurike M,

Kinotaima, M, >n

ii502

Kirinampo

see Carinambo

Kiwakewaraba I.

King William IV. C. ,..

KissaEpping M,

Koimara M, ...

a mistake for

Kaimari

Kokoro or Maam I.

Korokoropoag C.

Kororoni R. ...

the oresent Kuru-kuru R.

Kuaepulari 1.

i 248

Kuamuta R, V,

ii 866, opening

into the

Itabbo cl >se to

its Moru-

ca R, end, .

Kuamuta V, R,

ii 800 ; branch

ot Kaari.

mapo R.

Kuiaraton V, ...

ii 105, 119.

Kuipaiti M, ...

ii 105, 119,

Kukenara R, M,

Kukenaam, Kukenam

Wrongly spelt

Kukeman

fO.L.)

M. in 1875 map,

Kukeritte.kute I.

i 248

Kuliserabo R.

ib.

Kycabra R....

Kyk-over-all I.

Kyk-over-al (C.L)

i654

Kyooa R. ...

Kywaniero R,

Labaria Point

Labacabra R.

Laicenoca R. ...

Lalempo R. ...

ii, 882.

Laluni R.

Big and Little ib.

Lamaha R, Canal

Lanima R,

Lama

Languana I, ...

Longuat a

JarimaCabara R.

L ulau I.

C '

ib,

Leguan I.

ib.

ladders V. ...

Lime I.

Long I.

ib,

Lookudya R....

Look up V, ...

Loran I, Grande de

ib.

Loran, Chico I

ib.

Loo, The. V...

Loo Lands

Lord Stanley's or

Aritapu C ...

Lucky Spot V

Luri R

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Maam or Kokoro I

Maam

Mababo R

Wababo

Mabunna R ...

Mabura Hill ...

Macairito Channel

Macapa M

Makapa

Macariwari R

Macareo Channel

Macasseema V

Makasima

Maccari M

Makari

Maccarie C

Makari C.R.

Mackunaima M

Me Lennan's I

Macouria. or Boesel R ...

Makauria

Macrebah C ...

Makreba

Macudood R ...

Makudud

Flows into the Rupununi ;

not into the Purunaru R.

Macuinuca R ...

Mo.''o-Moco

Mucu.Mucu in ii 40, and

in 1846 map.

Macupara.R ... ••• ,
Madewim R ...

Fe
Cd

Wrongly spelt Macupura.

Mahai a R

ib R V

Mahaicony R...

ib R V

Mahaikabally R

Mahai na R

Muhaina

MahiruniR ...

Maruni

Mahu orlrengR

Maiapi V

Mai-hi C

ii 781

Waikangpati M

Maikan Yepatori Rock . .

Maikang in ii 173

Maipure Rocks

Maipuri R

Mairari M

Maishaba V ...

Maiyari or Majaii R ...

Maiyari V

Ma jari <~>r Maiyari R

Maka'ku R ...

ii 822 and 1846 map. W.

Bank Pomeroon, above

the Sururu.

Makaparina M

Makapa riina

Makarapan M

Makarana in ii 706

MakilikaVoro or Jumpy I

Makilikoro

Makui Makatona R ... De

Makunaima-auteRock ... Eb

Makwa Koyo 1

Malawai R

Ma'awai

Mamesna M ...
Mamette M ...

i 958, near Aripai R

Mamoricura or Parrot I...

Mam pang M ...

Manabadin R...

Manacaba R . . .

Maoacaburi R

ManaLiburi

Manacca I

Manacca R

Mambaka

Manakara M ...

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

xxi.

1875

1913

Matiakobi R
Manapari M. ...
Manari R.
Manari V.
Manaribisi R.
Manariparu R.
Manatiwau R.
Maaawarina R.
Manaweri M. ...
Manaworan C.
Manicurra E.
Manoa M.
Mauoshuballi M.
Manwariny R.
Mapare R. and Rocks
Mapauri

Mappa I
Mapure M. ...
Mapurie R.V.
Maquiarl R. ...
Marabiacru Cliffs
Marabisi R. ...
Maraet&hiba M.
Maraiina M. ..
Marakang R ...
Mara-mara R.
Maraquia R. ...
Marattacaba R.
Marawa Epping M.
Marawaca M.
Marawar R. ...
Marbooro R ...
Marebicuru R,
Marehughi C,
Marepa C,
Marepowta R, V,

Mareppa Emba M.
Mari C.
Mari V.
Mariamaru C,
Maricabara R,
Marico R,
Marieparukeng R.
Marieta L,
Marieta Oboro I,
Marihi C
Mariko R,
Mariina M, ...

Marimari R, ...
Marina jo R, ...
Maripa O.
Maripa M,
Maripa Oute R,

Manibari

Manari-wau

ib.

Manarabisi

(rC

Manawarin

Manwariny ii 859, 862

Manarowa

Be'

? Manikuru

.Fc

See Manawarina

Maparri

Maipure in ii 673

ii 629, br. of Kukenam R :

in 1846 map

ib.

Mapuri

Mapuro (C.LJ

Makwiari

Marabiakru

Morabisi

See Mari in a

ib.

Mavamarabisi

Waratakaba

ii 459, Shewn in 184$ map

Maruwawe

Mabura

Maripakuru, Manpakuru

Maiehugi

Maripa

Ed,

ib, R.

Miry

Mariparukeng

An,

Parrot

ib..

Marico in 1846 map.

? the westerly of the two
Maringma Mis.

Wrongly speli Mara:ma in
1875 map.

ib.

ii294

•

Murapa Yeng,

ii 40. Takes its source on.

Western spur of Canuku

•

Range.

xxii.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Maripa V,

ib,

Maritamnia E.

ib,

Mariusa Channel

Mariwa E,

ib,

Mariwaballi E,

Mariwaru E, ...

Mariwette or Taouiara M

Marocco V, ... ..i

Moroka

Marooca E, ...

Moruka

Maroodie E. ...

ib.

Marop'a E.

Marourona E . . .

ib.

Marshall C. ...

ib.

Maruiwa or Whomana E.

Maiuiwa

MarukuM.

MarupaE.

Maruwa or Pariim E ...

Mania

Masaetayourou Inlet . . .

Masaetayourau

Mashiveow E.

Mashive-au

Massanapa E.

ib.

Massepava E . . . .

Massiparu

Massiwindui C. E.

Mazawini

Massuro Creek

Mataparu E ....

Matappi E. ...

ib.

Matarooca M. ...

Mataruka

Mataruki E. ...

ib.

Matope C.

ib.

Matuawotow V.

Maturowow V.

Malziendaoa M.

M archit i-tain

Matzipao C. ...

Mach-pawa

Mauitzi or Mawitzi R. ...

Maurucavu M. R.

Maurugaru

Maurukiamu R.

Mavaesi E,

Mowasi

Mavisi M.

Mawari Wonotobo or Gov.

Wonotob.)

Sir James C. Smyth's C.

Mawarli R.

Mawitzi or Mauitzi E. ...

Mawunna Meketziba Hill

Mawuwe-Kute I

Maycar or Camaikariba E.

Mazurine M ....

Mazaruni E. ...

ib,

Mazuwini E. (lower)

? Mawukani

Kazuwini E. (upper) ...

? Arawanta

Mecrope Hill ...

Mekropai

Mehokawaina E,

Whana

MeketsibaM. ...

Mekorerussa C.

Eclipse

Meneruau R. ...

Menese E.

ii781

Morocco ii 859, and
throughout the text,

Maruki in ii 528 ind 1846
map

i830

ii 665, br of Eupununi

Mawitzi in ii 329.

H707

i.248

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

xxm.

1875

1913

MepitiwowR. ...

Merewari M. ...

ii 459. In 1846 map,

Merewaru K. ...

Meliwau

Merewye R, ...

MeriR. M. ...

ib. R.

Merume M. R.

ib.

Mithpai V, ...

Maiapai

Mibero R.

Mibiro ii 974

Mibicuri R,

ib.

MinyonaR. ...

ib.

MipahM.

ib.

Mitarra R.

Matara V.

Mocco-mocco I,

Mocco-mocco R.

Moko-moko

Mocha V,

ii972

Moco-moco Point

Mocorebong Peaks

Moleseno R

Moleson

Mompena I. ...

£>e

Mapenna

Mona C,

ib.

Mona R.

Monkey's Waist

see Osterbecke Point

Monosse R. ...

Monticuri I. ...

Mopay V.

MoraR.

br of Berbice

Mora R.

br of Rupununi

Mora V.

on the Dernerara

Mora V,

on the Rupununi

Morababa

Morabally R. ...

Moraballi

Moraero

Morakori R. ...

Mora Passage...

Moral M.

Moraquiaparu R

Durabanna

Morebo R.

Moribo, ii 875

Morewow R. . . .

Morewau

Mortbo

see Morebo

Moroaquah R.

Morocco R.

see Marooca R.

Morocco Embarcation or

Wai-ipukari

Tupukarri

Morokai M. ...

Morokima M . . .

Morokina

Moruca R

Mosbiba R

Mosquito I ...

Mouranierocabra R

Mowarieteur V

Mowenow V. ...

Mucu-Mucu R

>r of Takutu : seeMacu-

muca

Mucu-Mucu, or Sehurini R.

Sehuruina

br of Barima.

Muipaina R ...

Mukuripa M ...

Muracaraicura R.

XXIV.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

Murapa Yeng...

ii 363

Muratipu M, ...

Murawa R. ...

Muruwa

Murawai R. M.

Murawar R. ...

Muruwawe

Murayapong M.

Mureh-Mureh R.

Mure-Mure

Murissicurru R.

Muritaro

ii 101'2

Muritipu M. ...

Murray's C ..,

Murre R.

ii 455,brof the Kukenarn

Murura M.

Mururuina R —

Mururum*

Muruwit M ...

abandoned Carib Settle-

meat.

Mus^ra V,

Massara

Musheparu R.

MuyangR,

Nabba R.

Naoba

Naikuripa I, ...

? Makwai-baru

i 251. 656. opp. Bartica

Grove.

Na*ukai R, ...

Nappi M. R, ...

ib, R,

Nappi-Iperawaka V,

Nassau, Cape ...

Neckuwai R, ...

N«nbaru R ...

Nerwa Saw Mill

Nerva

New Amsterdam V,

New Daageraad V,

New River

ib.

Nickeri V.

Nickeri e

Nocbpoko R. ...

ib.

Noetkedacht V.

Noytegedagt V.

Nuima I.

Nuina

Nunca Sarara ...

Nunu or Cunihari R.

Nuria M.

Obian R.

Tobiana

Obisposl.

Ockuwa R.

Okuwa

Ocuma R.

Okuma

;

OeniR.

Unu

Ohina R.

ib.

Oladipis R.

Holadibisi

Old England V.

Old Vigilante V.

Old Vigilantie

OlupikaiC.I. ...
Omadekeur M.

Cc
G.I

Popekai, Topekai I.

Ombarra R. ...

ib.

Omughou M. ...

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

XXV.

1875

1913

Onono or Onoro R.

Onoro in ii 925

Ooboodicooru R.

Opoima M.

Apauraitipu

Oreala Cliffs ...

Orealla

Oreala or Aureara R.

Orealla

Orindouie Falls

Orindouk

Orinedouk Fall

ib.

Orinoco, Gt. Mouth of, or

Boca de Navios

ib.

OritajaR.

Oropatoun C, ...

Ororabo V.

Ororopi R.

Ororu Malalli or .Great

Fall

ib.

Orotoko or Curutoka R...

Knrataka

Ortuhar R,

Ortuahar ii 772

Oruba R.

Orurucobra R.V.

Ositiqah V.

Ossotshuni M.R.

Ossotshini

Ossotschuni in text,

and

1846 map.

Osterbecke Point

ib (Cd)

As Monkey's Waist

in i

702: not in 1846

Otonain Rock...

1875 map.

Otomong M.R.

Otomung R.

Otucamabo R...

Tokomani'>

Oumaia Hills ...

Omai Mine

Oumaia R.

Omai

Cataracts, ii 781

Ouropocari C.I.M.

Kurupukarri C.

Our Village ...

Ousayway Rocks, Rapids

Kus:iwe (C.L ) Kusowe

Oweang R.

ib.

OwenaonaR. ...

Oweanna

Owenteik V. ...

(ib) Wandaik

PaM.

See Pa Epping

Paca.paca C. ...

Paku.poko R.

Pacaraima M....

Pakaraima

Pacasaro R. ...

Pakasaru

Paccu C.

Pa.ckaranga M.

Pacutout Portage

Pakatuk

Pacuwu'na R...

Pakuima

Padra V.

Pa Epping

Paiiitecobra V«

Paintekobra

Pairawa I.

Pairawa R.

ib.

Paiwiyau R. ...

Pinniyet-wau

Paiwu-jau in ii 202

Paiwori Cayra C.

Paiwori Kaira

Pakarampu M.
Pakarawari M.

Pakarampa

Pakarampo iu ii 645,
ii386

649

Pakari R.

Pakirona R. ...

ib.

Pakuku Rock...

Hd Pakaku

XXVI.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1918

Palemon V. ... ...

Paloureouta V.

Panamoo E. ...

Panamu

Panatsikameru C.

Panatsikameri in ii 349.

Pantania V. ...

Piipagos 01? Pilot I.

Para R.

ii 862 br of Upper

Moruka E. Esseq.

Coast.

Paragua C.I. ...

Ankoko I.

Parakua M. ... ...

Paranyepu E....

Parapaecra M.

Parapimoi E.V.

I 665 in 1846 map.

Parapu E.

Paraqua E. ...

Paraquah C. ...

Pararapu M. ...

Parazawi C. ...

Paratawai ii 704

Parepiapa M. ...

Parerabatonwow V.

Parewara E. ...

Pore\vare, ib (C.L).

Parika E.

ib and Channel

Parima L. ...

See Amucu

Parima E.

Parima vel Uraricuera

vel Eio Branco

Pariina Eanges

ii 289. In 1846 may.

Paripe E.

Paripi V.

Paripi Hill, E.

ib. V.E.

Paripu V.

i 665 near Caruawa E.

Parowaca,ssie C.

Parawakas

Parrot or Corua Oboro I.

Kobertsoii

Parrot or Mamoricura I...

Parrot Point ...

C<.t

Partang E. ...

ib.

Paruacabara E.

Paraweka

Paruauka Portage

Bara-bouk

Paruauku, ii 706

Paruima E. ...

ib.

Parumallali C.

Epiru marali

Parumatalli C.

Parura E.

Piruku

Parutang V. ...

Pasimang M. ...

1953

Pataghe M. ...

Patamoug V.C.

Patainona ib.

Patapatitna I....
Patawalla E. ...

Cd
De

Patwalla

Patia-pateimu in i 251.

Patighetiku M.

Patpanaro I. ...

Patt#-p«teima I.
Pauisette M. ...

See Patapatima I.

Pauitipu M. ...

ib.

Paumbo I.

ib.

Pavian Hole or San

Kuku Pt. ...

Santuk Pt.

Pawai-irang M, ...

. •»; .

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX. xxyii
1875 1913

Payuca C.

Paiyuka

Peaimah C.

Peaima

Peereboom V\..

Peepee R.

Pi-pi

Pegua R.

i515

PelibelimbaR...

Be.

ib.

Penal Settlement

ib.

Peropo V.

ib.

Perparu R.

ib.

Piacoa M.R. ...

Piake I.R.

Kwiakwa

Piamah, Falls of

!Piatzang Rock

F/b

Pilot or Papagos I.

Pinighette M....

Pinniyet

Pinghette in ii Ch, 3.

Pinniyettinow V.

Pinniyet-wau R.

Pipicho V.

Pirara R.

Pira, Pirara (C.L.)

Pirara V.

ib,

Pirisana V. ...

ii 882 on Barama about

| mile below Cariacu V

Piritate M. ... ... Gc

ib.

Ph-itiku M, ...

ib.

Piriwai M.C. ...

Piriyauwa M....

Pirocaima M....

Piroto R.

Birote

pishani C.

Pisham-Pisham

Piwerritaio R...

Playa Point ...

ib.

Poaghepping M.

Pobawaow R. ...

Pobawau

Poikeur R.

Poinka-marca or Wornu

Wrongly Spelt Pomkai-

ipong C.

Devil's Hole

nnrea in 1875 map.

Poinka-watu M.

Point Playa ...

ib.

Point Rightabout

ib.

Poloma I.

ib.

PouaerDon R. ...

ib_

Pomkainarea Portage ...

See Poinka.marca

PongR.

ib.

Pon»abi V. ...

Poobo V.R. Rock

Pubu V.R.

Poropo C.

Port Mourant Fresh

Water Path

CJe

Port Mouranl

Portuguese I....

Post Arinda ...

Ed,

ib.

Post Seba

Seba

Potaro R.

ib.

Black River on 1846 map

Poto R.

ib.

Powis I.

ib.

Powis or Woka M.

Oko

Primo's Inlet ...

ib.

Primoss ii 720. 766

Primrose Hill V.

Puenco I.

Puliasanta V...,

XXV111.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Punkuiba M, ...

•

Puriari R.

ib.

Puruna R.

Parunaru R. ...

Kunaruwau

Puruni R.

ib.

Purura M.

Puruwe R.

Putiparu M. ...

Pyuca C.

Payuka

Quaima R.

Quakabaka L....

Quariwaka M ...

i 941, ii 40

Quarquia V. ...

Quartata V. ...

Mistake for Quatata

Quashimi C. ...

Quasinanucali R.

Quatata R.V. ...

ib, Kwatata (C, L)

Quatte-banaba I.

i 248

Quaye R.

Kwayc

Querriman I. ...

Queriman

Quiripui R.

Quitaro or Guidaru R. ...

Kwitaro

Quivekuru R. ...

Quonga V.

Rabbit I.

Rabbo Amissi ..

Mistake for Itabbo Amissi

Raleigh's Peak

ib.

Raleigh's C., Sir Walter

ib.

Rappu or Bamboo C,R....

ib.

Red Cliff

ib.

Red Hill

ib.

Remolinos I. ...

Rerekru R,

Rewa or Roiwa R.
Rhati M.

Fd
Gc

Illiwa (Rewa)
Raad

Rhawow R.

Ru'i-wau

Richmond Lock

Rico Channel...

Rocky M.

ib.

Roncho Vieja I.

Roraima M. ...

ib.

Rue Imeru C.R.

Rumit M.

ib.

Rumutokoke V.

Rupa R.

ib.

Rupununi R. ...

ib.

Fd
Gc

See Cannyepaugh, ii 708

Ruru-Ruru C...

ii699

Sa-acko I.

Wanuto

Sabaina R.

ib.

Sabaneta P. ...

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

XXIX.

1875

1913.

Sabernawow R.V.
SabritinR.
Sacaouta R.V...
Sacarawa M. ...
Sacarura Point
Sacupana Channel
Sacupana V, ...
Sacupana Vieja I.
Saeraeri M*
Saeraeri M. .
Saganang R. ...
Salieng M. ...
Samaria R.
San Antonio M.
Sanders V.
Sandhills
Sangoromung V.
Sankuku Pt. or Pavian

Hole

Sanmonawong R.
Saus-souci V. ...
Santa Catalina V.
Santa Rosa V.
Sarabaro R. ...
Sarabibo R. ...
Saranieparu R.
Sarata 0.
Saraurayeng M.
Sarenapo R. ...
Sari R.
Sassara C
Savannah M. ...
Sawako-tunalli M.
Sawara-auru ...

Sawkins I.
Saxacali Point
Saxically Rock
Saya Great .Fall
Scabunk or Cativau-uru

Seba Post

Sebay R.

Sehurini or Mucu-Mucu

R ,.

Semang R. ...
Semire R.
Sepumaka R. ...
Seregatava C. ,..
Seroun R.
Sericoeng C. ...
Serribarra Hill
Shaririwona R.
Shea M. R.V. .,.
Shetukeng R. ...
Shimkuna R. ...
Shiruru R.

Gc
Be
Eb
Cc
Cd
Aa
Aa
Aa
Ib
Gc
Cb
DC
Fc
Ba
De

Ed
Db
Cd
Aa
Bd
Dd
De
EC
Gc
Ea
De
De
Cd
Eb
Fc
Fc
Gc
Fd
Cd

Sabernawau

ib.
ib.

Shiriri

ib.
ib.

Sautuk P.

ib.

Sabaro, Saraburo (O.L)

ib.

Sowaranap

ib.

Sauriwau

ib.

Saxakalli

Skabunk.
Seba

Sehuruina

ib.

ib.
Serikoeng or Kliutiuma

Shiriri wouo, ib. (C.L)

ib.
(?) Kwitaru

Issororo

i 702

ii977

i826
Sawara-auuru, 11 60.

i.251; See Saxacali P.

Sururu. i 949, ii 821. 850
and 1846 map.

XXX.

1875

1918

Sick R.

Siki

Simiri M.

Simeri Rapids

Simoni R.

ib.

Simon's Town V.

Simuita V.

Simuri R

Siparieparu R.

Sipariparu

Siparimer C. ...

ib. or Akawahaiina

Sipari-wuini R.

Kamani

Siparuni R.

ib.

Siparuta Cliffs

ib.

Sipu ov Essequibo or

Coatyang Kityu R. ...

ib.

Sirikua'nta Rock

Siroppa M.R. ...

ib.

Sisters, The. I.

Three Sisters I

Three Sisters in i 251

Smith's I.

ib.

Smyth's R, ...

ib.

Snake or Buonaparte I...

Socoroco L.R....

Somena R.

ib.

Sororieng Peak M.V. ...

Sorarieng, ib (C.L)

Sowarti V.

ib.

Stampers I.

Stanley's Town

ii 969

Stenaparu R, ...

ib.

Sudamong K. ...

Simiri ...

Sun or Camu R.

ib.

Supenaam R. ...

ib.

Suquabie R. ...

Sukabi

SuraR.

Suracabra R. ...

Surama R.V. ...

Suribauna

Suriby R.

[Siriki. Dutchman's

i 638 East bank Pomeroon

Creek]

Soebyrie in Bouchenroed-

er's map

Surinama R, ...

ib.

Sururu R.

See Shiruru R,

Suwara.auru R. . .

Sauriwau

Suwaraima I. ...

Swarima

Swarte Hock or Birming-

ham P.

ib.

Tabaitiku M. ...

Tabinetta C. ...

Taminoda, Taniinada

(C.L)

Tacaraeruoone V,

Tacocoma R, ...

Tacuba R.

Taiepong V. ...

Taipong Savannah

TaHe R.

Taki

Takine C.

Takutu R.

ib.

br of Rio Bianco

TakutuR.

„ „ Barama

GtiOG&APHlCAL INDEX.

XI XI.

1875

1913

Takutu R.

Tapuru

br. of Siparuni

Takutuwow R,

Tamalewona ...

ib.

Tatnannakiu M.

Tamaunaiku, Tamanakiu

(C.L)

Tamanua M. ...

Tatnbicabo Inlet

ib.

Tambicabo Island in ii 771

Tamboro M. ...

ib.

Tambaro in ii 732 and in

1846 map.

Tamour R.

ib.

Tamuncrkang M.

Tani R.

ib.

Tapacoo C.

Tupeku

Tapacooma L...

Tapakuma

Tapacunaa in i 647 and in

1846 map

Tapiraperu M...

ii 4i9.

Tapori M.

Tapuru M.

Taquiara or Mariwette

Taquiari or Curauti M. ..

Takwari, Kurauti

Taracai M.

Tarakuri R. ...

Tarakuli

Taramtibawau R.

Taraqua

i 795 : the Rewa or Quitaro

of the map.

Taraqua Inlet...

Tarawaikwa

Tarawa R.V. ... ... EC

Tarenni M.

TaripiruM, ...

Tarpe C.

Tarpi

TarramuR.V....

ib.

Tarucupani M

Darukaban

ii 699 Tarucuparu

ii 707 Tarucaparu

TatatM.

Tauracnli R. ...

Taurabuli

Tawailing M. ...

ib.

Tawaiwow R. ... . .

Tawaiwau

Tawampeh M...,

•

Tawi-Ikwia R...

Teboco C.

Tiboku

Tebocu, Heights of

TekereR.

Temehri Rock...

Timehri R. I.

Temoreng R. ...

ib.

Tenabo R.

Tenapu

Teriambo R. ...

ib.

TenbouR.

Tenabo

Teuemaru R. ...

ib.

TenetteM.V. ...

Terchilewan V.

rerimbona V...

Turubang R.

Terpitra R.

Terpong R. ...

ib-

ThirabuliR. ...

Tiger Hills ...

ib.

Tiger I.

ib.

Tiger R.

Kassi

br of Corentjne

xxxn.

1875

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.
1913

Tiger E.

ib.

br. of Essequibo

Timiteparu E...

Timiti E.

br of Hawerorini

Timiti E.

ii 885; Small Stream on

east bank of Waini

Tipuri E. aud Inlet

ib.

Tivarune C. ...

Tuwarong

Tiviruau E.

Tivituau

Toboyeekyuru E.

? Atobobura

Tocupo E,

ib.

Tokoropatti V.I.

Tokor-opati

i 667 Tokoro or Tokoru-

patti

Tokutu or Aruan Inlet...

Takutu Pond.

Tomatai E.V....

ib.

Tomorab E. ...

Tonotna C.

Tinamu

Toobaborome M.

Toobakang M...

Toonacoro E. .„

Tunakoro

Tooyeku K. ...

Toro Channel...

ib. Creek

Torong V.

Torong Yauwise in 1846

map, ii 348 etc.

Toroparu E.M.

ib.

br of Cuyuni

Toroparu E. ...

Turubaru

,, „ Barima

Tortola I.

Totohwow R. ...

Totowau

Dohte R. in 1846 map and

U909

Totowau E.

Toumone Basalt Eock ...

Towcoanie C. ...

Trekutara.tepau C.

ii 699

Tremitre

H699

Triviratighu M.

Tropocari C. ...

i 566

Trouili I., Great

Great Troolie

Tshibai E. ...

Sebai

Tshimapuna C.

Tshuma M. ...

Shuna

Tuanu E. '...

Tuanu Sararu C.

Tuariitu M.V...

ib.

Tuckparu V. ...

Tukeit Landing

ib Fall.

Tumatapati C.

Tumatumari

Tumeng C.R. ...

ib. E.

Tumong E.

ib.

•

Tumuremo V. ...

P.a

Tupuri E.

Tipuru

Tupurmg E. ...

Tupuru E.

ib.

br of Mazaiuui

Tupuru K.
Tupurukena E.

EC
! Cc

br of Siparuni

Turabano E. ...

? Seweyo

Tnvantsink E...

ib.

Turerucata-kurin E.

ii 151 : in 18 i6 map

Turesie C.

Turesi

Turtle or Cassi R.

Tiger

XXX111

1875

1913

Turu M. ... ... Fc

Turubongeng E.

Turuwiparu E.

Tusa E.

Tusaling E. ...

Tusenen

Tussami E.

Tuwaballi I. ...

ib.

Twasinki C. ...

ib.

Twasinki M. ...

ib.

Tziau E,

Tshuau .

Uassari M.

Wassari

Wrongly Spelt Ussai

Ucaraima M. ...

Wrongly Spelt Ucariama

Ugene Channel

Umata V.

Una Barooca E.

Uiiabaruka

Unainara E. ...

Wauamaru

Union V.

Uorora E.

Yurora

•

Upara-Kuiba C.

ib.

Urabbo E.

Y uvaba

Uradya E

Uralli E.

Urana E.

ib.

Uraricapara E.

ii 530

Uraricuera, Urariquera

See Parima E,

Urieparu E. ...

TJrona E.

ib.

TJropocari C. ...

Urua (Old Mission)

Urua E

See Curua

Urumaroppa H.

Drumamopa

Uruturukeng E.

ib.

Uruwai M. ...

ib.

Ussai M,

A mistake for Uassari

Uwabparaduie E.

Uwiya C.

Vakiparu E. ...

Wakaparu

Venturu L.

ii 6 : in 1846 map

Victoria Point

Vindaua or Win tower

Win-tawa

Viriette M. ...

Viritow M.

Yiritau

Apparently intended for

Vivi

Virua or Virura E.

Virua

ii 298 : the Manucuropa oi'

Vivi M.

the older maps,
ii 640, 703, and 1846 map

See Viritow M.

Waburicabra E.

Waburina E. ...

il).

Waca-Pau E....

i 635. See Wakapau

xxxiv.

GEOGRAPHICAL

1878

1918

Wackupauo M.

Mistake for Wackupang

Wacuta Hills...

ii298

Wadaris E. ...

i 638 west bank Pomer-

oou

Shewn in Boucheiiroo

der's map.

Waetipu M. ...

Weitipu

Wahmarra M,..

Wamara

WahmattaV....

"Wahpanna V. ...

Kwabaima K.

Wahparu R. ...

Wnparu

Wahtope M. ...

ib.

Wahuma

See Wapuna

Waiakapiapa M.

£>a

Waika-piapu

Wayakapiapa ii 46 1

Waiaka -piapu(C.L)

Waicurie E. ...

Waikuri

ef Waikure M.

Wai-ica-cari Passage ...

Waika-kari ib.

or Cano Bassama

Wai-icaripa I... ... G1*]

Kaow

or Kaoo I.

Wai ipukari ...

Yujtukarri

or Morocco Embarcation

Walking Eppiug M.

ib.

Between junction of Zu-

•

ruma and Cotinga

Waikiug Epping M. ... Fb

(marked, but not named)

In fork between Cotiuga

and Takutu

Watkueh E. ...

Waikura M. ...

Waikuri

cf Waicurie E,

WailahparuE.

Wailahrima E.

Wailangteur E.

Wailaug

Waina E,

Waine E

Waini or Guainia E,

Waiui

Waini E.

Arawapai

In 1913 map the Arawapai
is considered the Termi-

nal of the Waiui: what

•

was previously the Waini

head is now the Arawapai

Waiuifoiw E. ...

ib.

Waipah V.

Waipahyaracapu V.

Waipopekui ...

Popikai

Waipopo E. .»..

ib.

Waiting E. ... ... Ea

Waitaru E. ...

Waiteur C. ...

ib.

Waiwa E.

ib.

Waiworamuco E.

WakaC.

Wakapau E. ...

ib.

Wakeiiftam I....

ib.

Wakeiouu) E...

Wakupaug M.C. ... Oc

Wakupaug

or Acuiwaugh C.

Wakuroite M...

ii 110

Wall Cape ...

Wamamuri E..

Wamamur

Wamapatti E...

Wamarru Serrika U.

ib.

Wamekuha E...

tid

Wammari.kuiba 0.

ib.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

XXXV.

1875

1913

Wanakai R. ...

Wanakara M ...

Wanama R ... ....

Whananv.paru

Wauainia.ua R.

Wanamiawa

Wanamuh or Yau-uh R.

ib.

Wanamu, ii 927.

Wanguwai or Camoa E.

Kamoa

Wanguwai and Amneu

Ranges

ii, 151

Wannoka R. ...

Wanaka, Wanoka(C.L)

Wantuana C. ...

ib.

Wapau R.

Wapuau K.

ib.

Wapuna M. ...

ib.

ii 743: Wapuna or Wa-

huma in ii 150.

Warabarachitu V.

Waracaba R. ...

Waracabara R.

Wainibaruka

Warack R

Wara

Waracooma V ...

Waralli M. ...

Waramai R. ...

Waramatipu 1\T.

Wrongly spelt Waramatipo

Waramatipu M. ... Eb

Warami M.R....

Waranaki M. ...

Waranak in ii 495, 496.

and 1846 map,

Waranasso I. ...

Warappa R. ...

Warapa

Waraputa V. ...

ib. Falls

Abandoned site of mission

Warara-aburupug C.

or Ouratokoa

Warara-sararu C.

Wararite R. ...

Eai

Waratilla R. ...

ib.

Waritilla in ii 974

Waratti Hill ...

Warawaipai R.

ib.

Warayo R.

Warerie R.

Wareri

Wariinambo 0.

ib.

Warimatipu M.

Warinatipu

Warimiapu R...

Warniabo

Warimiwau R.

Warina R.V. ...

Waripaia R. ...

Waripari

Waripuow V. ...

Waritilla

See Waratilla

Wariweh M. ...

Waroesi R.

Warnngong R.

ib,

Warramuri V.

Waramuri Mis.

Warratu C. ...

Waratuk.

Warrowarang R,

Warru V. ...

Waru V.

.Gc

Warumatta V.

Wanmgkai R...
Warungkaieug M.
Wamngkayeng M.

Eb
Eb
Eb

Warungkaiti in ii 508
on bead of Warungkai R.
Between Waikueh and

Cumparuyaniou Rs,

XXXVI.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Warupina M....
Waruwau or Awarra R.

Cc
Go

ib.
Awariwau

Wasaruapeur R.

Wasseouru R...

Wassiaku I. ...

Wassiapo R. ...

Wassiabo

Wassicuru R. . . .

ib.

Watama R.

Watainung M . . .

ib.

Watawarai L....

Watawau or Watuwau

Walu-wau

Waterbaru M...

ib.

Waterticow M.V. ,..

Watuticaba

or Watuticaba

Watuka K. ...

Mahaicony Watuka

Watuticaba M.V.

ib.

or Watertitow

Watuwau or Watawau

ib.

Watyau R'

Wause M.

ib.

Wau.uno R- .,.

Wano

Wawacunaba M

Wawat unaba

Wawat M.

Wayaka-piapa M.

See Waiaka-piapa

Wayanock R. ...

Wayarimpo R.

Waiarimpo

Wayaruima I ...

Wayatsipu M ...

Wei-assipu

Wayas-tipu in 1846 map,

Wayawatiku M. ... Gc

ib.

Wayuma R. ...

Be Waiuma

Weiaamu R. ...

ib.

Wenipero R, . . .

Big Wineperu

S. of following br of same

name

Wenipero R. ...

Dd Little Wineperu

N. of previous one;

Wenkobat

Ed Inkapati

Werd-Werri R.

Cd Weri-werai-kuru

West P.

Wetteverden M.

Wey namo u R . . .

Cb Meamu

White or Ainiutong M ..

Whomana or Maruiwa

Whycarapie R.

Waikerebi

WibraR.

(r) Waiwa

WickiS,

Wikki

Wieroni R.

Wiruni

Wieronie R. ...

Wiruni

Wilamb.iruR, ..

Windsor Forest V.

De;

Winipiru R. ...

Cd Wineperu

Wiutower or Vindaua M.

He Win-tawa

Wirina R.

Witzapai R. ...

Gc Wichahai

Witzn.pi on 1875 map,

Woka or Powis M.R. ...

Cc Oko

Wokomung M.

EC ' ib.

Womuipong Portage ...

Cc ib.

or Pomkainarea, whicb/see

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

XZXVll.

1875

1913

Woodlands V ...

Woosowter C ...

Wusowter

Worms I.

Worokoi Mavari C.

Woroong R. ...

Worung

WotototoboC...

or Sir 3. Barrow's C.

Woupu R.

WuiriR.

Huri

Wurucokua M,

Weitipu

Wyoclaypalouta V.

Waioklepaluta

•

Yackariwa C. ...

Yackariwuiburi M

i 953

Yackitiru R. ...

Yaesi CayraC...

Yesi

Yahobiha R ...

Yakarimi Rocks.

Yakirimi ib.

YakiriR.

YakokaR.

Yakontipu M ...

Marmgma,* ib (C.L.)

Yamanock R. ...

Yamanok

Yauiari R

Vamari

Yamemure C,...

Amamuri V.

Yanekuru R. ...

Yaninzaec C. ...

Yapamany R. ...

Yaramuk'Ji R. ...

Yaramba

\araparo R. ...

Yarappa R. ...

Yaraucaburi R.

Yarewah V. ...

YarikitaR. ...

ib.

Yaringia M. ...

Mistake for Yaringra

Yaringra M. ...

ii 363, and map to frontis-

piece vol i.

Yarira R

Ddi

Yavoai R

YaronglarM ...

ib.

Yarouricab:a R\

Yaruaramo

See Yaruaruima

Yaruaruima M,

Eluwarima

Yaruaramo ii 461

Yaruni R

Yauraboo R ...

Yau-uh or Wanamuh R,

ib.

Fawaira B.

ii496

Yawangra V, ...

in 1846 map (Eb)

Yawarabisaro R ...

(?) Yakusari

Yawari R.

Yawaruima M.

Yawracabra R.

Yaya M,

ib.

Yessiatado R. ...

Yessicabra R.

Yesikabra

Yiemah R.

Yaiema

Yiwona R,

ib.

Youcaboora R:

Dd,

Yaukabura

*P robably the easterly of the two Maringma Mts, charted in juxtaposition in 1913 map

XXXVlll.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

1875

1913

Fouh's I,

Youruar R

Yrapa M

ib.

Yuacari or ^uwacari R...

Yowakuri, Yawakuri

(C,L)

Yuawauri or Cassikitvu

Kassikaityu

Yucanopito C ...

ib.

Yucawarin M,...

Yukawarin

Yueawaria, it 934

Yucucara I,V.

Yucuribi G.

Yukuriba

or Cumakatoto.

Yucurit in ii 772

Yucurisi R

Yukurislii

Yucurit I.

Yukona R.

ib.

Yupotte R. ...

Yuricabara R...

Yuruan M.

Yuruan R,

Yuruani R. ...

Yuruari R.

Yurume R.

ii 530.

Yuwacuri or YmicariR...

Yowakuri, Yawakuri

(C.L)

Ymvana

Zabang M.

ii 415

Zakaika K.

Skuika

Zapang M.

Zarantipu M. ...
Zaura R.

Da
Da

Charang

Zarargtipu, ii 463

Zetnai M,

i 963

ZibiC,

ib.

Zibingaatzacko M.

Zibingatzako

Zicki M,

Zuappi R.

ii 409, 415, a terminal br

of Cuino R.

Zuaptipu M, •••

Zunona R-

mistake for Zurona

Zurona R,

ii 343 and 1846 map: see

Zunona

Zuruma or Znrung R, ...

ib.

TRAVELS IN

BRITISH GUIANA

DURING THE YEARS 1840-1844.

Carried out tinder the Commission of
HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF PRUSSIA

RICHARD SCHOMBURGK.

Together with a Fauna and Flora of Guiana according to the
works oj Johannes Mutter, Ehrenberg, Erichson,
t Troschcl, Cabanis and others.

Including Illustrations and a Map of British Guiana

DRAWN UP BY

SIR ROBERT SCHOMBURGK.

VOLUME ONE.

LEIPZIG.

At the Publishing House of J. J. WEBER.

1847.

TO HIS MAJESTY
THE KING

FREDERICK WILLIAM IV.

IN DEEPEST REVERENCE AND GRATITUDE

Most Respectfully Dedicated

THE AUTHOR,

PREFACE TO THE FIRST VOLUME.

While submitting herewith to the Public the results obtained during
my stay in a part of South America so important from an ethnographi-
cal, zoological and botanical point of view, I feel myself forced, both for
my own and the reader's sake, to preface them with a few words of in-
troduction. Herein I would venture to mention, most submissively not
only the debt of gratitude,, expressed with the greatest reverence, for
the high honour whereby, through the support granted by His Majesty,
Our Most Gracious King, that liberal-minded patron of the sciences, I
was able to gratify the wish dearest to my heart that I had cherished
from youth to maturity, but also to indicate the standpoint from which
my book is to be reviewed, rather than to have it judged on an arbitrary
basis.

The results obtained in almost all departments of the several branch-
es of Natural Science in the course of the travels undertaken by my
brother, Robert Schomburgk, under the direction of the Royal
Geographical Society of London during the years 1835-1839,
in a part of South America, which up to then was as good
as unknown, — so far as concerned its geographical, ethnograph-
ical, botanical and zoological relationship with the whole of
the rest of the Continent, — had attracted the attention of men of
learning in 'th'e homeland. This was particularly the case with one whose
name like a guiding star will lead the way in Science for all time, and
through whose friendly consideration I was enabled with my slender
resources, to add my contribution to the knowledge of the surface-
structure of our -planet, though only as a collector of material for the
further study of the subject.

When my brother, entrusted with a fresh Commission by Her
Majesty the Queen of England, returned to the field of his former la-
bours, it was Alexander von Hurnboldt through whose means I received
the assistance from Our Most Gracious Sovereign, that enabled me to
accompany him to Guiana, and there, with its numerous treasures, for
the most part still undescribed, do the best I could in the interests of
our National Scientific Institute.

And although, conscious of my weakness, and in spite of the want
of a scientific training, I have ventured to make my observations public,
the necessary pluck was due to the encouragement and sacrificing sup-
port rendered me by men of learning, as I realise only too wrell the
claims that [Science makes on works of this kind, and that I am the last
person to satisfy them . The fact is, that as a gardener I was not famil-
iar with every essential scientific problem connected with the branches
of Natural Knowledge foreign to my' profession, and that whatever
success I may have achieved was gained as the result of direct exper-

PREFACE TO FIRST VOLUME. ii.

ience with Nature, the most stimulating of teachers, and of the earnest
determination to understand and learn to grasp everything that she put
in my way. The reader must take these observations into considera-
tion when passing judgment on my feeble efforts.

I am deeply indebted to my brother, and owe it to him. if my labours
should prove to be successful. I have to thank him also for the most
important portion of the work under discussion, the accompanying
map, the wearisome labour of several years: he drew this under his
Commission with the British Government, and when the latter left it for
him to print, readily handed it over to me for publication.

No one realises better than myself that I have been far from
reaching the goal proposed at the commencement of my journey, and
that my earnest intentions have been only partially fulfilled. The judg-
ment of the critics, who are not always impartial, entirely corresponds
with my own personal dissatisfaction in this case, but the knowledge
of having honestly striven towards my object through thick and thin is
sufficient consolation for me.

Added to the simple description of what T noted and observed very
carefully in the course of my journey is a feeble attempt at a Fauna
r,nd Flora of the Colony, in the compilation of which I have trusted my
own judgment only after having had it confirmed by the mature exper-
ience of others. The inclusion of this material is entirely due to the
energetic support of men who, with their courteous assistance and gen-
tle but stimulating advice, have not only encouraged me in the attempt,
but at the same time have unselfishly and readily supplied me with
their own descriptions of the new forms met with in my zoological and
botanical collections. I feel bound to express my thanks publicly and
particularly to Dr. Klotzsch, Professors Johannes Miiller, Ehrenberg,
Erich son, Dr. Troschel, Mr. Cabanis and others, who have helped me so
whole-heartedly in the undertaking.

And so, with the most graciously granted permission and the most
respectful expression of thanks, I place my poor work not only at the
foot of His Majesty's throne, but also hand it over to the consideration
of the public in the trust that they will judge it by no other standard
than that which is in correspondence with the position in life that I
have followed in the past, and which I occupy at present.

RICHARD SCHOMBURGK,

CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1.

CHAPTER I. PAGE.

Departure from Voiystedt — Frankfort-on-tJi e-Main — Rotterdam
— Voyage to England — Arrival in London — The Docks —
Natural History Institutions — The Niger Expedition —
Personal Experiences .... .... .... .... 1 — 7

CHAPTER II.

Departure from London — The Travelling Party — Captain Roth-
well — Sea-sickness — Experiments with Sea-weed — Crossing
the Line— The New World .... .... .... 8—16

CHAPTER III.

Landing — Georgetown — Historical Retrospect .... .... 17 — 79

CHAPTER IV.

Expedition to the mouth of the Orinoco — Mouth pf the
Waini — Sand-bank — Mora — Barima — Warrau — Cumaka
village and its environs— Commencement of the rainy
season — First trip 'to the virgin forest — Chigoes — Bete
rouge — Mouth of the, Barima and Orinoco — Return to
Cumaka — Habits of the Sloth— Arawak chief Caberalli —
River Aruka — Amacura — Religions Beliefs, Manners and
Customs of the Warraus — Journey up the Barima — Flora
and Fauna of the river basin — Akawai — First appearance:
of primitive rocks .... .... .... .... 80 — 163

CHAPTER V.

Splitting up of the Expedition — Return to the lower reaches of
the Essequibo — Network of natural canals — River Who-
mana — Waini — Obstinacy of the Negroes — Barimani
— Beara — A sacota settlement — Manners and Customs of
the Arawaks — Court-day — Flora of the Barabara — River
Morocco — Morocco Mission — Missionary Co llin s — Co lo nics
of Ants — Mud-banks of the coast — Mouth of the Pomeroon
—A district of abandoned estates — Hospital for lepers
Mr. Brett's Missian — Tapacuma Lake — Wandering Ants 164 — 105

CHAPTER VI.

Mouth of the Essequibo — Islands at the mouth — Bartika Grove
— Mouth of the Mazaruni — Kyk-ever-aH Island — Penal Set-

CONTENTS.

PAGE

tletnent — Cuyuni — Carib Settlement Kai-tan — Old Dutch
mining claims — Divine service at Bartika Grove — Arrival
of my brother at the Mission — Results of his journey — Re-
turn to Georgetown — Fort Island — Yellow Fever — Planta-
tion L'Heureusc Aventure — The Police Chase .... 196—223

CHAPTER VT1I.

Expedition to the Interior of Guiana — Departure from George-
town— Ainpa Station — Osterbecke Point — Commencement
of the Rapids and Cataracts — Flora of the lower Essequibo
region^-Itaballi Cataract — Aharo — Laying season for Tur-
tle— Gluck Island — Arissaro Mountains — Commencement
of the second aeries of cataracts — Waraputa Mission —
Hieroglyphics — Kanaima — Twasinki and Akaiivanna
Ranges — Tarn bicabo Island — Ouropooari Cataract — Ackra-
mucra — Rupununi — Carib Settlement — Kirahagh Aurime
Savannah — Macasis — Victoria Regia — Haiowa, Macusi
Village — Sudis gigas — Savannah fires — Wai-ipukari Inlet
— Tapir Hunt — Awaricuru .... .... .... 224 — 299

CHAPTER VIII.

Arrival of the Military Expedition — Our departure for Pirara
—Savanna h Flora — Ant-hills — Canuku Range — Pacaraima
Range — Pirara — Source of the river Pirara — Aberisto, the
Brazilian — Mar de: aguas blancas — Lake AHAUCU — Islas
Ipomucena — Watershed of the Rupununi and Rio Branco
— Flora and fauna of the neighbourhood of Pirara — Herds
of wild cattle — Arrival of Friar Jose dos Santos Innocents
and of Captain Leal — Seiiora Liberadiiia — Baducca —
Catching and Jdlling wild cattle — Brazilian vaqueiiros —
Arrival of a party of Maiongkong Indians from the
Orinoco — Re-erection of dilapidated houses at Pirara —
Construction of Fort New Guinea .... .... 300 — 320

CHAPTER IX.

Excursion to the Canuku Range — Watershed between the Mahii
and the Rupununi — Awarra Village — Virgin forest — Bed
of the Quaye — River Nappi — Nappi Village — Burial cere-
monies of the Macusis — Industry of the inhabitants of the
Canuku Range— Weapons — Blow gun — Ascent of the, Curas-
saivaka — Chasmarhynchus carunculatus — Rupicola auran-
tia — Ascent of the Ilamikipang — Strychnos toadfera —
Preparation of the, Urari poison — Wassi poison — Return to
Pirara — Habits of the Cathartes aura — Preparations for
the, journey to the sources of the Takutn .... .... 321 — 3G8

Departure from Voigstedt — Frankfort-on-the-Main — Rotterdam — Voy:
age to England — Arrival in London — The Docks — Natural History
Institutions — The Niger Expedition — Personal Experiences.

1. The peaceful Home with all its pleasant recollections of a hap-
pily spent Youth, with its many remembrances of nooks and crannies
and the occasion of any event important to the childish inind, which fol-
low us like faithful companions from early to old age, already lay
behind us on the morning of 29th October, 1840. Farewell, a farewell
perhaps for life, had been taken of my aged father, my brothers, sisters
and friends. Alongside my brother and his Indian servant I rode in
silence over the autumn-bare plains of golden pasture to a very stirring
uncertain Future, while my heart, still bound by thousands upon thous-
ands of ties tarried in the Past, and my soul sought to penetrate the
Future in the hope of answering the anxious thought: "Will you ever
see these folks of yours again, when, after long years of absence, you
once more get as close to home as you are now?" But to what my heart
could neither answer "Yea" nor "Nay," that what my spirit could not
fathom, was solved by the faithful prophet of my own country, by the
legend garlanded Kyffhiiuser* now lighted up with the rays of the
autumn sun. According to the oft-proven refrain: —

If Emperor Kedbeard takes off his hat,

Fine weather to-morrow is presaged by that:

Should he however now choose it to wear,

To shun any journey, just take every care.

its friendly beaming aspect promised me a successful journey, and a
ho'me-coming when I should once again find all upon whom I had set
my love.

2. However much we may smile in calmer moments at our clinging
to such absolutely independent coincidences, they nevertheless, in times
of dire distress, undoubtedly exercise over our whole personality a
power which even the most forcible process of reasoning is unable to
influence.

3. That faithful friend, the far-stretching meadows-land, soon pass-
ed out of sight, and the horses quickly trotted on towards Gottingen
where my brother wanted to spend two days to make Professor Gauss's
personal acquaintance and at the same time to familiarize himself at
the Observatory with the procedure necessary for meteorological obser-
vations.

"Kyffhauser is a range of hills in Thuringia, Germany, with the ruined castles of Rotheu-
burg and Kyffhausen.

" Hat Kaiser Rothbart ab den Hut

So wird auch morgen das Wetter gut

Hat er ihn aber aufgethan

So sollst du auch das Reisen lahn."

The Kyffhauser was a good omen to the intending traveller. If the brow of the height
were clear, good weather could be expected on the morrow etc. Emperor Redbeard is Bar-
barossa who is supposed to be living in state here asleep and only waiting to be wakened)
(Ed.)

2 ttf BUTCH TERRITORY.

4. We hurriedly made our way through the pleasant plains of Got-
tingen, of romantic Munden, and of Fulda, until, later in the evening
we got to Cassel .with its thick ly-foliaged mountain-range and monu-
ments falling to decay : we left again before daybreak, in order to push
on to Frankfort. Envious night hid Marburg from our view, dusky morn
enveloped Giessen in a mist: only Frankfort welcomed us in the bright
morning sunshine, but my brother found Professor Riippel away. After
a short visit to Heinrich Meidinger (known by his work: "Travels
through Great Britain and Ireland"), we hurried on at noon to the
Railway Station with the object of reaching Mayence the same day. It
was on this short stretch that our own journe3r, hardly commenced,
might easily have come to an abrupt ending, because owing to the care-
lessness of the driver, the engine together with some carriages ran off
the rails. A momentary shock fortunately proved the only result; of
an accident threatening such dire possibilities, and the waters of Father
Rhine, as they rolled along in all their majesty, soon made us forget
all about it. The moments that I spent absorbed in silent contempla-
tion on the Rhine bridge at sunset will never be effaced from my mem-
ory, for although the stream has been lauded thousands of times, all the
poetic and prose descriptions still leave something to be described, and
its praises can never be exhausted. I felt this forcibly, when
on the following morning, as the steamer cleft its way through the
bluish green waters, we passed the vine-covered mountains with, their
proud castles, the genial valleys and smiling villages, towns and cities,
while the Rhinelanders returning home from taking the oath of alle-
giance in Berlin sang in joyous chorus the old "Am Rhein, am Rhein,"
until finally the number of our happy fellow-travellers decreased at al-
most every stage, and Dusseldorf , where we spent the night, lay before us
in the distant plain.

5. The buildings that smiled at us strangers so pleasantly from the
banks, together with their pretty little gardens surrounded by green
fences and natty stone pavements in front of the dwellings, — in short,
the reputed and distinctive cleanliness and tidiness of the Duitch vil-
lages with their red-shingled roofs, and their many weather-cocks on
the ridge-tops, would have indicated clearly enough that we had crossed
into Dutch territory even if the Customs Office had not already notified
me of it. What I had imagined the interior of a Dutch household to
be, judging from its outside, was completely confirmed when we arriv-
ed in the evening at Nymwegen and spent the night in one of the Hotels
there. Rotterdam on the other hand has quite lost its outward sem-
blance of a Dutch city, the reason for which may very well be that as'
an important port it cannot remain true to its national traits. Consid-
erable rain, that continued all day still further added to the dirt in the
narrow and angular alley-ways.

6. I was not a little astonished however when upon looking out of
the window of our room I saw a number of enormous masts rising in
the centre of the city above the pointed gables and lofty roofs. On
going out, I noticed that all the wider streets were intersected by huge
canals, in which the biggest merchantmen, lying here and there, at an-
chor, were either being loaded, or else had already taken up their win-

ALBION. 3

tei« quarters. The immense number of vessels, from schooner to East
indiainan, naturally claimed my entire interest because tJiese were the
nrst large sea-going vessels I had ever seen.

7. On the following morning we boarded the big steamer "Giraffe"
that was to take us to the capital of the civilized world. Our travelling
companions were but few; but hardly had the land disappeared from
view than that ghastly bug-bear, sea-sickness, entered our circle and
drove one of us after the other from deck to saloon. This few hours:
foretaste prowd quite sufficient to let me conclude what was waiting
ahead for me. At four o'clock in the morning we reached the mouth of
the Thames when the moaning and groaning of the pale-faced passen-
gers gradually eased down.

8. Getting on deck, proud Albion, the sea-encircled isle, the empor-
ium for the riches of all the world, had already taken me to her own,
while the smoking chimneys, and beautifully constructed and animated
banks acclaimed "Kule Britannia'' from both their shores in self-con-
scious national pride. Sheerness with its strongly fortified Fort, and
Chatham with its wharves and Royal Marine Arsenal already lay in
the dim distance far behind, whereas ahead, there rose the little township
of Gravesend, in the background of which a grey dark misty and smoky
cloud indicated the site of the Giant City where already the fate of dif-
ferent portions of the world had so often been decided.

9. Immediately beyond Gravesend the environs of the Thames
again became more uniform, the banks flat and swampy, even the sea
wall seemed to be in bad condition. But as Woolwich came into view,
this uniformity disappeared, and from out of the well-known Artillery
park, the immense Arsenals, and wharves of the Royal Marine (Dock-
yards) there fell upon our ears an uproar, that found i'ts echo in the
confused din of innumerable steam-engines on the opposite shore. The
heaped up stores in that field of wood and iron, the number of Dock-
yards and Timber-yards for building and repairiug the largest ships of
the line* the innumerable Saw and Planing mills, the multifarious ham-
mering in the anchor-smith's and cannon foundry, all proclaimed loudly
enough that England indeed sways her Sceptre of Sovereignty over all
the seas.

10. The Dock-yards and Magazines were generally surrounded with
immense walls, and all approaches seemed to be occupied by strong

'guards. Among the buildings that must strike every stranger the Mil-
itary Academy which stands immediately behind the yards, and the
Riding School, built in the style of a Grecian temple, with the Artil-
lery Barracks attached, are particularly prominent, while to the west-
ward rise the huge Barracks of the Marines..

11. But one did not really want to look for signs of hustle and bus-
tle only on the still far distant shores, for around and close to the roar-
ing steamer this had developed to so high a pitch that she was several
times forced to reduce her speed. Boats, schooners, merchantmen, and
steamers passing up and down stream, reduced the broad waters of the
Thames that were slowly rolling down into the sea, to a narrow chan-
nel, and I gazed in wonderment at the strange picture that human in-
dustry and activity was unfolding until my eyes rested on a dismasted
and unrigged colossus, the huge hull of one of those former ships of the
line, that was now doing duty as a hulk for convicts for New Hoi-

land. Just then those who were already sentenced to transportation
were being taken ashore to work in the Royal Dock-yards.

12. My next surroundings also kept me busy, for Greenwich dipped
out of the mass of delightful country houses, out of the dense enclos-
ure of autumn-tinted gardens, above a regular forest of chimneys reach-
ing the skies, while the world-famed mistress of the erstwhile dominant
lode-stone, the Greenwich Observatory, rose on the thickly foliaged hill
of Greenwich Park; the most beautiful building in England sit-
uate on the bank, the large Naval Hospital founded by William of
Orange and opened in 1705, hid a portion of the comfortable-looking
township.

13. Hardly had we got past this than Deptford, now almost within
reach of the tentacles of London, spread itself out before us with its
old ships, wharves and timber yards of the Royal Marine where once
upon a time Peter the Great served his apprenticeship.

14. Every turn of the paddle-wheel of the easy-going engine bore
me on to ever increasing hurry and scurry; a real forest of masts with
the colours of all the trading nations of the world gaily floating in the
morning breeze, indicated the presence of docks on both sides of the
banks, from which a number of small boats were rowing up stream and
down stream in all directions, some bringing passengers and goods from
ship fo shore while a number of others wrere conveying them in furious
haste from shore to ship.

15. While contemplating this busy harbour life we arrived at the
anchorage of the "Giraffe" which happened to be immediately opposite
the Custom House, when our luggage was immediately taken possession
of by its officers and brought into the building.

1C. Closely intent upon the next minute when I was to make my
entrance into the capital of the civilized world, the outside of whicn
had already wrought such a powerful impression on me, I strode light-
ly at my brother's side towards our lodgings which, through the kind-
ness of Mr. Shilling-law, the Librarian of the Royal Geographical Society,
had been engaged for us in Golden Square,

17. A detailed description of this immense area of houses with all
its life and strife, its everlasting excitement, its racing and chasing-
after a goal, its bright and blinding lights, and still more dismal shad-
ows, its palaces to which His Lordship who has been dining out and
dining well, hies back in gorgeous equipage at night, and its dark and
dirly streets along which enervated Vice sneaks like a wandering skel-
eton at break of day — in short, a description of London, the present-day
City of the Seven Hills, lies beyond the scope of what I am attempting
in this work.

18. Our departure from London was delayed longer than we had
anticipated, owing to my brother finding his preparations being far from
as advanced as he expected ; this however afforded me an opportunity of
getting to know the City better, both in its outer and inner bearings.
The Tower and St. Paul's have been described long ago, Westminster
Abbey has already secured more than one monograph, and every "Guide
in and around London" contains sufficient information about Somerset

BJ Whitehall, the Admiralty, Horse Guards, Westminster Hall, and

THE MIGHTY DOCKS. 5

fairylike Kegent Street. I accordingly pass them all by, bujt yet can-
not refrain from lingering a moment on the establishments that proved
of the greatest interest to me and bore most striking testimony to the
wealth of English industry and trade, — the different docks and ship-
yards. After visiting St. Paul's, Westminster, in fact all the more re-
markable buildings, and admiring the Parliament Houses now in course
of erection, I turned my steps to the northern side of the Thames and
showing at the entrance of St. Catherine's Docks the necessary pass with
which I had been provided, was allowed to enter. In the huge
warehouses, fire-proof vaults, and on the ground there lay heaps of our
northern produce. When in the year 1823, the alteration in the hitherto
bonded-warehouse system was introduced, several private individuals
combined to form a joint stock company and erected these docks, thus
taking the remedy into their own hands, as they could not submit to the
high duties charged by the London Docks previous to actual sale.

19. From here I hurried on to London Docks in Wapping, commenc-
ing with the small ones, and ending with the larger. They were estab-
lished in 1802, cover a floor-space of more than 20 acres which they en-
close in a square, and are accordingly divided into Sou|th, West, North
and East banks. Huge sluices lead to the compact Thames flowing past.
Immense warehouse sheds, under which the packing of goods coming in
can be remedied, and the merchandise piled up in rainy weather are
drawn up around the banks. A paved carriage 'road, running at! the back,
divides them from the long row of fire-proof vaults of which the
large tobacco one consists of four continuous floors one abbve the
other. The cellars of this mighty warehouse might well be the most
interesting and largest that Europe has to show, and were a stranger
to venture in without a guide he would certainly have as little chance
of finding the exit as Theseus did that of the Labyrinth, — unless he had
tied the end of the guiding thread onto the entrance gate. These cel-
lars can hold more than 100,000 casks of wine : the complicated path-
ways are generally lighted up. Each of the four banks has its especial
number, every number its own head-office with its officers, inspectors
and cellar-men who again are collectively subject to a Central Office
and conltrolled by it. At certain hours of the dav the signal for opening
the entrance is given for the subordinate and higher officers, as well as
for the labourers, who are only allowed in after their names are called
out. The same thing takes place of an evening when work is conclud-
ed: except during working hours no labourers, etc. are left in or out. On.
Completion of the day's w'ork and calling of the roll, the buildings are
watched by guards on the outside. The captain of an incoming ship is not
even allowed to sleep aboard his vessel. When the ship ar-
rives, all the sailors are discharged and do not see their boat until she
goes to sea again. To the left and right of the larsre entrance-gate of the
Docks stand the Customs Office and the Excise Office.

20. After gazing in awe at these huge areas with their strictly reg-
ulated activities I wandered a mile farther down to the West-Indir,.
Docks situate at Poplar. In general they correspond structurally with
those of the London Docks, and only differ from the latter in that they
fall into two divisions, of which one is intended for inward, and the
Other for outward bound (Export Pock) ships, I likewise foun^ here

6 NATURAL HISTORY INSTITUTIONS.

the hugest cellars and vaults for wines and spirits, which however are
supplied with natural light: long sheds resting on cast-iron pillars run
along the banks as with the former, and the discipline is similar.

21. Yet another mile farther down on the northern bank of the
Thames the East India Docks bring these extremely interesting ware-
houses to an end. They are also partitioned off for Inward and Outward
Bounds. On the southern bank of the Kiver are still to be seen the
Greenwich or Commercial Docks which communicate with the Grand
Surrey Canal, but as they are said to be far less important than those
mentioned above, I did not visit them.

22. Our lengthened stay afforded an opportunity of my getting into
closer touch with several departments of Natural Science which were
hitherto foreign to me, and which I had at least to take advantage of
according to instructions received. The British Museum, the College of
Surgeons, as well as the Botanical Gardens alt Kew, the Zoological
Gardens in Regent's Park, and the Museum of the Zoological Society
were in turn my almost daily resort.

23. Sir Hans Sloane at his death in 1753 laid the real foundation
of the present-day very extensive and remarkable (British) Museum

for the whole range of Natural Science, for Ethnography, Archaeology,
and Art. when he bequeathed to the Nation his significant Natural His-
tory Collections and Art treasures, out of which in the course of years
this important and most comprehensive institution has taken its rise.

24- Alongside this stands the College of Surgeons or Surgeons'
Hall, celebrated for its excellent collection of anatomical preparations.
I had the good fortune to become personally acquainted with its love-
able Director, the celebrated Professor Owen, whose tall, handsome and
manly figure, combined with gentleness, amiability and integrity of
character, charm every heart at the very outset. Under his friendly
guidance, I got to know this important Institution: he also showed me
his work on the Lepidosiren paradoxus, at that time of interest to all
Zoologists and comparative Anatomists, that was occupying his whole
attention, the collection having just received a specimen from Brazil.

25. The Botanical Gardens at Kew must have at one time proved
the scene of tolerable disorder, a state of affairs which the never- tiring
hands of its present Director, the amiable Sir W. 'Hooker, with his re-
cently inaugurated regime had been able to rectify only to a certain ex-
tent.

26. Of remaining Lights of Learning with whom I had the good
fortune to become intimate, I must mention with deepest respect and
honour Messrs. Lindlev and Bentham as well as Dr Natterer the cel-
ebrated Austrian traveller and naturalist, who was just then staying in
London.

27. Amongst the many private collections which I had an oppor-
tunity of visiting, there was one that particularly engaged the whole of

my attention: it was the beautiful really fairy-like collection of hum-
mine-birds, the property of Loddiges, the market-gardener, containing
all the species of this interesting family at present known, and consid-
erablv richer in them that is the British Museum. The perfectlv natural
and tasteful WPV of stuffing, and the charming method of group-
ing thetn on the part of Loddiges Jr, has made the room in

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 7

which the collection is set up, a regular Wizard's Den. The comprehen-
sive collection of Orchids and Palms belonging to these gentlemen like-
wise deserves the most praiseworthy mention.

28. Another friend I must not omit to mention : the mother of Cap-
tain Marryat. the novelist — also a general favourite in Germany — by
whom my brother and I were several times invited to her pleasant and
pretty "country-place at Wimbledon and with whose family we spent
the happiest of hours.

29. As the preparations for the Niger Expedition, so unfortunate
in its results, were being carried out at the same time as those of my
brother's, we, the Germans of both undertakings, used to chum together,
and it is with the most painful emotion that I now recall the hours
spent with Dr. Vogel and Rotscher of Freiburg, the mineralogist, when
we gazed into the future full of hope and most flattering expectations,
and had already met again in spirit for a mutual exchange of past ex-
periences. Rotscher returned home, like both of us brothers, but poor
Vogel lies covered beneath the damp swampy soil of the deadly Niger.

30. Ought I, finally, to amuse the indulgent reader perhaps with the
many extremely ridiculous breaches of English etiquette over which I so
often put my brother in a fix? Thus, when with innate German courtesy
and chivalry after the most approved style, I greeted a lady next to whom
I had sat at table the evening before and whom I met the following
morning — she turned her head aside with an expression of contempt:
according to English custom, the gentleman must never be the first to
acknowledge a lady in the street. On another occasion a worthy and dis-
tinguished individual called to me at table, "Mr. Richard, may I have
the h'onour of drinking a glass with you?," to which I, having already
drunk sufficient and remembering the old ne quid) nimis, replied "No,
I thank you" whereby I unconsciously offered him so gross an affront
that he at once jumped up and measured me from top to toe, his eyes
aglow with anger, when my brother managed to explain that T, of course,
had not had tho slightest intention whatsoever of insulting him, but had
onlv answered him as any German would. Very often in ttte streets my
badly pronounced broken English wo'uld cause the greatest embarrass-
ment and draw the most ridiculous misunderstandings in its wake — but
I let all this pass and am only quite sure that I had to pay honestly for
my apprenticeship.

CHAPTER II.

Departure from London — The Travelling Party — Captain Rothwell — •
Sea-Sickness — Experiments with Sea-weed — Crossing the Line —
The New World.

31. In spite of the eagerness and haste with which our preparations
were carried out, it was nevertheless the 19th December before we could
leave London. The expedition, consisting of my brother as commander.
Marine-Lieutenant Glascott as assistant, Mr. Hancock as secretary, Mr.
Walton as artist, and myself as volunteer, travelled by passenger-Bteamer
to Gravesend to catch the good barque "Cleopatra" that was to convey
us to the goal of our wishes : she had already been tugged there by
steamer from the West India Docks where she had been freighted.

32. Unfortunately, the 18th December upon which we might have
sailed, .proved to be a Friday, when the order of a captain to up with
anchor and leave the Docks could only be expected to be obeyed under
circumstances of necessity, for every sailor cherishes the firm belief that
a sea-voyage commenced on a Friday, can only terminate in misfortune
and loss.

33. It was dark when we reached Gravesend and got a boat to trans-
fer us to the Cleopatra, already lying at anchor, where we found
everything in an upset. Honest Captain Rothwell, known to and
esteemed by all travellers to the West Indies, introduced us to his wife
who for several reasons would have considered it one of the greatest of
conjugal crimes not to accompany her husband on all his voyages: she
shook hands with us, cordially, and bade us welcome. Both husband and
wife were Scotch. Captain Rothwell had gained his first laurels fighting
with the celebrated veteran regiment, the "Scotch Greys," at the battle of
Waterloo, which continually formed the most brilliant topic of his
interesting conversations. Of course, like all his compatriots, he gave
the credit of the victory solely and alone to Britain. Rothwell was
one of those straightforward and blunt natures often to be found among
sea-farers, was fond of his glass of stiff grog, and at table, preferably
over a glass of wine, he would tell us about his adventures by land and
:-ea, never reflecting that his interested' hearers were emptying a glass
more than they otherwise would have done. Every happy face was
cheery sunshine for his humour, every sad one a gloomy cloud in a
radiant sky : he enjoyed everything beautiful in whatever form to be met,
or wherever to be found. Mrs. Rothwell learning this thoroughly
throughout her happy married life, must have concluded from experience
that it were better for kitchen and cellar — because the captain had to see
to the victualling of the passengers — as well as for her lord and master
if, during the voyage, she were to take both the former and latter under
her special management and exclusive care. I still remember with a
smile the lively quarrels that usually broke out of an evening in the
captain's cabin after having got Rothwell to talk at table about Waterloo
when, recognizing what brave lads we were, he would call for one flask
of rum or wine after the other, with a view to save himself spinning his
yarn dry, and our having to wind it up thirsty. The lively remonstrances
of his spouse against such waste and the loss it entailed in her casH, were
generally answered by a loud snoring proceeding from his bunk,

WAN GHOST OF SEA SICKNESS. 9

34. In the cabin we found our two fellow-passengers : a pale young
lady with those wistful limpid (ticfsinnigcn schwimmenden) eyes so
characteristic of Englishwomen that renders them so very charming if at
all backed by a nice complexion, and a ybung Scotsman who, as it turned
out later, was a Customs officer on his transfer out to Georgetown. The
former was hastening yonder to an uncle and possibly to a rich husband,
a calculation that unfortunately proved deceptive, because after a three
years' stay she returned to London without one.

35. The narrow quarters soon broke the ice, mutual acquaintances
were struck up, and the usual bets made between the prospective
passengers as to the day upon which we would reach our longed-for
haven. Each one fixed the amount he wagered on the day we were to
touch terra firma at Georgetown, and everybody hoped he would pick
the right one and win the stakes.

36. We were awakened already before daybreak by the lively bustle
and noise taking place on the decks together with the rhythmic singing
of the sailors while heaving anchor, and the steamer that was to tow
us again to-day as far as the mouth of the Thames, soon put in her
appearance. Thick snow covered the banks of the river. The nearer we
got to the mouth, the higher towered the waves, the more unsettled
became the motion of the ship, the more rapidly I experienced those
uncomfortable sensations premonitory to sea-sickness. We had hardly
left the estuary than I fell a victim to the wan ghost. During ten days
of anguish I lay for the most part unconscious and ate nothing whatever
except a few oranges. What were the hours spent in groaning when I
first got sick crossing from Holland to England, as compared with what
I suffered here? The condition in which one finds oneself is simply
horrible. The heavy dull oppression in the head, the limited and yet
augmented breathing of the chest, the painful cramps in the stomach,
the cold sweat productive of nausea at the very sight or smell of food, the
continual thirst that never can be quenched, the everlasting longing and
yearning of the spirit when everything is centred in one single hour's
stay upon solid ground — all these torments collectively can only be
appreciated by one who has suffered sea-sickness in the wholesale line
like I have.

37. Banished to my sleeping-quarters I had not the slightest idea
whether we were still in the Channel, or already making our way across
the boundless sea: indeed I believe my apathy for everything external
must have reached such a pitch that, had the Captain told me that the
ship had stuck on the top of Chimborazo I would have stared at him just
as unconcernedly as if he had only come to grumble that we had not yet
passed the Straits.

38. The sun of December 29th shone so invitingly through the port-
hole, that I suddenly felt the wish awakening to try at least to reach
the deck. The worst of the complaint was over : I succeeded in the
attempt. But wjiat a change had taken place in the surroundings since
Tny last visit ! My eyes looked in vain for land, only a few sea-gulls

(Sterna) that swarmed around the ship, indicating that the coast could
.not be very distant. The favourable wind had quickened our journey
through the Channel and we were already in the Atlantic.

39. How I envied Mr- Richie, the voung Customs officer, who had
never suffered sea-sickness for a moment, although this was his very first

10 A STORM AT SEA.

sea voyage. My other fellow-passengers were the true reflected images
of my own miserable self, and the poor young lady, from the time of in}1
disappearance, had shown herself outside of her cabin just as little as
I had.

40. But though feeling as much revived by the fresh sea air, in place
of the musty and evil-smelling atmosphere of below-decks and cabin, as
I was cheered by the boundless area of the Ocean, with Heaven's vault
resting on the horizon, I was nevertheless soon forced to seek that
hateful confinement again : the distant sky had suddenly changed and a
few squalls seemed to indicate the brewing of a storm. Everything
remained quiet up to evening : the ship coursed through the waves fairly
comfortably, and we turned in with the conviction that our fears had
been groundless. We could hardly have been asleep an hour, however,
before we were awakened by the violent and irregular motion of the
vessel, and anyone who had not lost his senses through sea'sickness, could
surely have realised from the powerful rocking, creaking and rolling ot
the boat now wrestling with the up-rooted and unfettered waves, from
the shrill orders of the Captain shouted through a speaking-trumpet, and
from the yelling uproar of the sailors attempting in vain to overwhelm
the howling of the storm and the smashing of the waves against the
ship, that a hurricane had burst upon us in all its fury.

41. For me, these first few seconds were the worst. The noise of
the slackening sails, the oft-repeated vain attempts at reefing them, the
confusing clatter consequent on the storm breaking its force on the
loosely-hanging canvas before the sailors succeeded in gaining its absolute
mastery, the rattling of the chains and cables that drowned every word
spoken by the men, all combined to produce so bpwilderirig an effect that
the most firmly determined will must have yielded to the excitement.

I dashed on deck, then down again : everywhere the same upset. Though
stunned by the confusing din and uproar of the natural elements
unshackled in all their rage, I at once thought that the material and
human contents of the cabin were suffering jointly and individually from
an attack of St. Vitus' Dance. Everything that was not clinched and
riveted flew in the maddest fashion from the one side to the other, and
fortunate was he who, even proceeding with the utmost caution, was not
thrown down, rolled along like the play-ball of Fate, and dotted over
in black and blue, before finally reaching his intended goal. The storm
raged until the 2nd January and reached its greatest violence during the
night of 31st December to January 1st. These were days of real dis-
comfort and terror : a gloomy grey sky and sea, through which here and
there black spectral clouds rushed like ammunition-carts to the
field of battle. The breeze howled and growled in deafening din;
creaking and loudly shrieking it bore along with it the moaning and the
groaning of the masts and the dull thundering of the block and tackling
tumbling up against them, while the high plunging waves, greedy for
their prey, stormed the vessel's frail planking which quivered in its very
joints, or else they hid the ship momentarily in their watery arms and
tore off from her decks everything that stood in their way.

42. Even though the terror and confusion in the cabin were amply suf-
ficient on the outbreak of the storm they were now increased to a much
higher pitch. My dreamt-of courage succumbed, and involuntarily there
crossed my memory during this awful New Year's Eve the previous ones

EXPERIENCES ON THE VOYAGE. 11

that I had so often spent in completely different surroundings, in quite
another frame of mind. Ought I to regard this stormy anniversary an
omen for my future?

43. On the 3rd January the sky cleared and with it the .troubled faces
of the passengers. We found ourselves in the latitude of Madeira. The
thermometer already registered 10° R. in the shade. The stoves were
banished from the cabins, and everybody was busy getting his summer
clothing out of the boxes and trunks, while the sun, with all its warmth
and animation, now beamed upon the passengers numbed with cold, care
and anxiety. Our pale young lady with the limpid eyes, which the
awful days had almost dulled, again took her place with us. Only poor
Hancock still lay groaning in his berth : the storm had mercilessly missed
him alone whereas in the case of us others it had driven away the last
vestiges of sea-sickness.

44. If Mrs. Eothwell had hitherto regarded the disinclination for
food on the part of her boarders with inward satisfaction, her face now
took on an appearance quite opposite to that of the cheery skies, her
former sunny aspect changing to one of heavy thunder clouds: for the
cook could hardly meet the impetuous demands of the famished folk, and
scarcely an evening passed but an echo of the recent storm sounded over
to us from the Captain's cabin.

45. The deck was henceforth my home which I could only be induced
to leave by the bell for table, and the craving for a rest. Now for the
first time I learnt what real life and activity on board a ship meant, and
watched with delight the discipline and order that, through the forceful
command of the Captain, reigned over everything- Almost every day
the deck was scoured, every morning before daybreak it was swilled.
In storm or calm, by day or night, a single word drove the sailors as
quick as thought to the extreme end of the rigging, and the hardly ten-to-
twelve year old apprentices, up the very tops of the masts.

46. The long drawn-out though recently freed waves towered

majestically aloft, and seemed desirous of swallowing the vessel gliding

down into their deep furrows. The water had already assumed its

beautiful indigo colour, and whole herds of sporting Dolphins or Sea-hogs

(Delphinus Delphis) suddenly emerged above the surface, and then as

quickly dived into the unfathomable depth, until a number of the festive

party would be hit by our weapons, when together with the whole

school, it would clear away for good. We were still accompanied even

by some sea swallows which now and again when tired would settle on

the sails for rest. Woe to the daring individual who might venture to

kill one of these birds : the anger of the entire crew would embitter his

every moment of the voyage, for sailors recognise in them the ghosts

of their deceased mates who always accompany their former ship. They

are a peculiar people, these sailors : in their conceits and dispositions

quite a true image, but mostly a reversed one, of the prevailing weather.

The Storm is their real element, the inert Calm their time for growling

and for indolence, until, on the sound of the cease-work bell of an

evening, they collect on deck and try to while away the hours and

discontent in winding off their yarns. At such times, often as an

attentive but unobserved listener, I enjoyed their powerful descriptions

of adventures experienced and storms successfully encountered, or else

amused myself with their still more, vivid chanties. On week-days one

12 EXPERIMENTS WITH SEA WEED.

cannot find any better descriptive name for them than "tar-jackets"
because they then are really stiff with dirt, our cook not excepted : on
Sundays, on the other hand, they- look as if they had just come out of a
band-box, and the tidied-up youngsters then proudly parade the decks.

47. We had by now reached the latitude of the Canaries : our
splendid sailer skimmed the seas as briskly as a bird : and with the fresh
wind also holding up we could usually make from six to eight knots an
hour. Though already inspired at sun-rise and sun-set by the sight of
the limitless element, my enjoyment was further enhanced with
oncoming night when the sky stretched itself out above us with its
constellations and equally innumerable falling stars, when the moon-
shine fringed the half transparent edges of the lightly curled waves, and
the ship seemed to swim in a sparkling sea of tire. More or less large
luminous globes swarmed over the whole wide expanse, and with every
furrow that the proudly sailing vessel cut into the approaching waves,
the sparks, flying like glowing iron when struck with a heavy hammer,
momentarily lighted up its immediate surroundings.

48. During the day, on the other hand, my attention was drawn to
the immense masses of sea-wrack or sea-weed which from now onward
surrounded the ship. The heaping up of this mass of vegetation has
often been the subject of the most versatile speculation, and extremely
varied views have been expressed as to its origin. Alexander von
Humboldt having charged me on my departure, to make every attempt
possible to propagate the sea-weed in barrels, I fished up huge
quantities on the outward and homeward voyage, and found all the
manifold varieties that have been described, but never a root to which
the plant was attached. I kept larger and smaller pieces of plant in a
number of tubs, supplied some of them hourly, others daily with fresh
sea-water, while others again I left in that originally given them : yet
all became black and were already spoilt within the course of two or
three days. On the outward vo'ylage, in January, notwithstanding the
most careful search, I never succeeded in finding fruit, whereas on mv
return in the months of June and July, they were absolutely overstrewn
with them.

49. When fishing up a parcel of it in the dredge-net, I at the samo
time drew on deck a complete world of molluscs, jelly-fish, sea-squirts,
cuttle-fish, rotifers, crabs and smaller fry, amongst which the beautiful
Phuaalia utriculus and Caravella ("Portuguese Man-of-war" of the
sailors) particularly interested me. It afforded us the most beautiful
sight, when with their lovely coloured tentacles, innumerable specimens
passed us by.

50. The nearer we approached the Equator, the more did our fellow-
passengers and sailors who had already crossed the line chaff those of
us wrho were now about to do so for the first time. If one of the ship's
apprentices had done a kindness to an older experienced sailor he could
rest assured that the latter's thanks would contain some consolatory
reference to the baptismal tonsure at the fatal Line. So when we did
get there finally, it was known that we harmless people were to be
decoyed on deck. Here on arrival we suddenly found ourselves surrounded
by sun-burnt faces, and saw Neptune in a sheep-skin turned inside out and
fringed with dripping sea-weed, emerging from the hatchways to settle
himself on a huge water-barrel. With eyes bandaged, each novice is,

CROSSING THE LINE. IS

now led before his throne, roughly enough lathered by him, and then
sliaved with a huge ship's cutlass: ten or twelve of the sea-god's
Tritons stand ready with buckets full of salt water, to wash off the suds
left remaining. If we four passengers who crossed the Line for the first
time were properly! lathered and soused, it fared much worse with the
poor ship's boys and sailors who stood on the same footing as ourselves.
The patient lambs for slaughter, who well knew from others' account^
that any useless opposition would only tend to amplify the act of
endearment, were first of all tied under the ship's pumps to have the
dirt washed oft' so that they , might appear spick and span before the
deity who loves cleanliness so much. After being half -drowned and
released, they were mocked, and scoft'ed, and comforted with dry and
piquant remarks interlarded with the most forcible flourishes of rhetoric.
One of the Tritons came up with a vessel full of wet sand and powdered
them with such violence that blood ran down their pallid cheeks when
he led them before the Barrel of State. Here Neptune, with not exactly
a light hand, used his ship's cutlass to complete the shaving of the poor
victims, now screaming and wailing most piteously the while, as the
jubilant Tritons poured innumerable buckets of sea- water over their
heads- However funny the grimaces of those to be baptized might
prove to a spectator at the beginning, he nevertheless felt the deepest
pity for the poor jyioung fellows during the course of the procedure.
But were a captain to abolish this day of gaiety and enjoyment for his
crew, the repudiation of his ship amongst sailors would be lost, whatever
big wages he might offer them-

51. The temperature, ever becoming more sultry, was already
tiring and oppressive; the sheet-lightning increased; countless shooting-
stars crossed the vault of heaven in instantaneous flight and the glorious
constellation of the tropical sky, the Southern Cross, soon showed ahead,
while the hitherto guiding polar star was sinking into the depths behind.
Closely packed swarms of flying fish rose several feet above the surface
to escape the pursuing Tunny (Scomber Thynnus] or our own swift ship,
when, after a flight of often 20 to 50 paces against the wind, they either
t'ell back into their element, or were driven on to the deck, where the
sailors welcomed the spoil. The brisk contest carried on between the
tunny and the sailing-ship is interesting; the fish seem only to think it
a little joke, because, though often springing above the surface, they
never remain behind their rival.

52. On the afternoon of the 21st January I noticed that the colour
of the water was essentially changed and had assumed a muddy yellow-
brown colour. Immediately after, I was very glad to see in the distance
numerous swarms of sea-birds that more or less slowly drew hither and
thither over the surface. But I was still more pleased when somebody
clapped me on the shoulder and Captain Rothwell's blunt voice shouted
"Now, Mr. Richard, to-morrow morning early you will have your wishes
fulfilled : to-morrow you will see land and soon stand on terra fir ma"

53. Mr. Walton was the prophet to be acclaimed victor : to-day was
Thursday, and to-morrow Friday, the day upon which he had betted, and
he consequently took the pool.

54. Daybreak found all the passengers collected on deck, earnestly
seeking the promised land. As if still swimming in the haze, a small
dark fringe suddenly appeared on the horizon and a general "Thank

14 ENTERING THE I)EMERARA.

God" on the part of the passengers proved their greeting to the K-eW
Continent. All the ship's telescopes were fetched up, and quickly handed
from one to the other. The continuous fresh breeze that was speeding us to
our destination, gradually scatterd the envious morning niist, and the
vseveral outlines of the shore became gradually more distinct, until finally
the coast itself, covered with thick masses of foliage, appeared sharply
defined. The crowds of birds that had been previously noticed in the
distance were already swarming around our vessel in cheery clamour:
amongst them the beautiful Frigate-bird (Tachypetes aquila Vieill.)
apparently wanted to choose a perch on the highest top of our Cleopatra.

55. It was only to-day that we reluctantly answered 'the clear sum-
mons of the mid-day bell that called us for the last time to table
where Captain Kothwell, in spite of the liveliest remonstrances of his
wife, surrendered as best he could the last remnants of his champagne
which was nevertheless drunk with the liveliest enjoyment. Our impa-
tience did not allow of us staying long below, and we quickly gathered
•031 fteck once more. We had approached the coast so
closely in the interval that, without glasses, we could
not only see the proud palms rising above the dense foliage,
but also the peculiarly constructed lightship which, with its far-reach-
ing beacon serves to guide in-coming vessels at night: the vessel at the
same time constitutes the Station where every over-sea ship must
pick up a pilot, because, without one, the entrance into the Demerara
mouth would prove fairly dangerous. About four miles out to sea and
stretching across the mouth there is a large sand-and-mud bar with only
two channels of which one is 9 feet deep at half flood, and the other ( the
eastern) 19 feet at high flood, so that no vessel that draws more than 18
feet can cross it. Once the channel is passed and the mouth of the
Demerara reached, the River itself affords the safest and most conven-
ient harbour that could hold the whole combined fleet of Great Britain.
The arrival of every ship is signalled from the Lightship to the Light-
house in the City. As soon as we came in line with the Lightship, a
row-boat came off with the pilot, a coloured man, who now took over
unlimited command, so that Captain Eothwell for once in a way was
given a rest- The negro pullers were naturally enough regarded by us
new-comers with curiosity.

56. With the dangerous bank soon astern, we shortly afterwards
ran into the 4 mile wide estuary of the Demerara. The land I had yearn-
ed and longed for, the land of fairy fancy, of blood and terror, of the
most effulgent hope and expectation for the people of Europe, the land
where the dignity of man has been trampled under foot so long, but
where now is risen a modern era which is already illumining the distant
Future with its initial brilliance — the American continent stretched
out before me.

57. A number of boats, fishing-smacks, sloops with three-cornered sails,
schooners, even two barques that had passed the channel shortly before
us, were forging their way in a motley throng towards the mouth, while
the dense tropical vegetation with which Georgetown or Demerara was
regularly veiled, prevented us from satisfying our inquisitive gaze:
we could only see the majestic Lighthouse with its proud summit and
the gaily flying flag through the enveloping cover, and then follow the

FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 15

huge boiling-house chimneys of the Sugar Plantations situated on the
western bank all surrounded with beautiful cabbage palms ( Areca olcr-
acea Jacq. ) and Coconuts (Cocos nucifera). The Rhisophora Mangle
Linn., Avicennia nitida Linn. and Laguncularictr racemosn
Gaert. form the coast and river fringes, of which the
two laltter stretch along the uncultivated waterside and
s'ea-shore in thick uniform hedges. In the distance they looked just aft
if they had been trimmed with shears and from behind their dark invig-
orating verdure there peeped the pleasant buildings of the Estates, un-
til finally on the right or eastern bank, bordered by the hundreds of
masts of merchant ships, schooners and sloops at anchor, Georgetown,
the capital, presented itself to view.

58. The sun was already hurrying towards the western horizon as
we slowly made our way over to Fort William Frederick which is close-
ly connected with the Lighthouse where our ship's signal still fluttered,
along through rows of merchant vessels under English and~Nrorth Amer-
ican flags, whose sailors had crowded together on the decks to watch
the incoming Cleopatra and welcome her with a general Hurrah! The
crews of the coastal boats consisted for the most part of half-naked
negroes and mulattoes who were busily discharging ground provisions,
and enlivening their labours with strange sorts of songs. Along the
banks the city showed nothing but an uninterrupted facade of wharves
built on posts, with huge cranes, baggage* stores and warehouses which
were given life to by the bustling agency of human hands : behind them
again there rose slim cabbage and coconut palms which thus hid the
remaining portions of the capital. The Wesitern bank certainly did not
show so lively but yet none-the-Jess interesting a landscape. The thick
border of Avicennia and Laguncularia concealed in part the Estates'
residential quarters and boiling^houses, enclosed as they were on all
fides by hundreds of small nigger-huts, together with their towering
chimneys which in perspective ever became gradually reduced in size
until they finally indicated but the site of cultivated areas lying farther
inland, where a bluish yellow evening haze limited the far horizon. The
steamer that is always keeping up communication between both banks,
as well as thje innumerable boats that assiduously cross the river next
attracted our attention.

59. After a long and fruitless search, the Cleopatra found a berth
and to everybody's satisfaction the anchor rattled down onto the soil of
the New World. But our wish to sleep on shore to-day was not fulfilled.
Evening having set in we were forced once more to be satisfied witfi our
cabins: — my brother alone landed so as to wait upon the Governor
without loss of time next morning. Immediately after his departure the
Customs-House officers paid us a visit.

60. In the evening, we heard the singing of the jolliest songs on the
ships which, according'to the distance of their anchorage, finally became
blurred into single chords: the skylarking and noise betrayed the sail-
ors' dispositions, while in between a few crude or melodious sounds of
different instruments managed to reach us. Nature had been resting
already long in deep repose, when Man alone showed he shunned its?
sovereignty : for the dull thunder of the cannon at the Fort that lightly
rolled over the ruffled surface of the rivermouth and
only died away in the far distance, notified

- .

1ft HtSBED IN THti

tatoo, and found its echo in the peal of bells On
the merchant ships and in the booming of the huge signal-shells of the
coasters, until these also were hushed, and the glorious music of the
military in the barracks close to the garrison was wafted on the gentle
breeze, soft and enlivening, over to us. The previous merry fun and
'frolic on the decks was now followed by the deepest silence, only to be
broken by the waves splashing against the ship's planks at high water,
or by the isolated call of a captain for the boat which was to take him
back to his ship.

61. On ah average, the current of the Kiver amounts to 2i knots,
while at the mouth, owing to the falling of the tide, it is often increased
to 7 knots an hour, i.e., 11.9 feet per second.

CHAPTER III.

Landing — Georgetown — Historical Retrospect.

62. Just as the firing of cannon had signalled the onset of night,
a similar one notified the breaking of day; the Reveille
sounded through the yet silent city streets and recalled
to life fresh energies and renewed activities. Innumerable
boats, laden with produce from the estates, were rowing with
and against the stream from the west bank and from farms
situate further inland, towards the capital, to supply it for the coming
day with Plantains ( the fruit of M usa paradisiaca Linn. ) , Maize, Veg-
etables, Oranges, Poultry and Fish : others were engaged in capturing
the denizens of the deep, to return with them in due season. In the
midst of this engaging tumult there gaily sounded the strange chirp
and twitter of the larger and smaller birds that were searching the
thickly leaved trees of the bank for spoil, or flying to greet the opening
dawn, while the anchorage was being gradually filled with noisy and
squalling negro women who were waiting to buy the cargoes of the in-
coming boats.

63. Our impatience would no longer be curbed and so, full of mis-
chief and delighted with the glorious morn, we jumped into the boat that
was to convey us to shore . It was only with difficulty that we managed
to force our way through the noisy crowd of black, brown, half-naked
huckster-folk of Georgetown collected there, who looked upon us with as
much surprise and curiosity as we regarded them. To our great sat-
isfaction, the wide street we followed ran direct to the Lighthouse Tower,
which straight away prompted us to take a view of the city from its
top. After climbing the 140 steps leading to the gallery, a won-
derful panorama unexpectedly came into view. Dumb with surprise and
delight, the eye swept over the heaving and billowy seas as far as the
distant horizon where Earth and Heaven met : light fishing-boats pitched
and tossed upon the ruffled waves, to disappear a moment later, while
a ponderous coaster would skim its way through them. Below, there
glared at me the thick forest of masts and flying flags. Spreading itself be-
fore my delighted gaze was the city with its nice wooden gaudily-pain/t-
ed houses, its overtopping churches and Public Buildings, its thousands
upon thousands of slender palms, its broad busy streets, and its many
canals that 'ran through it like so many veins: it was enclosed by moro
or less distant sugar estates with many a smoking chimney striving
sifter heaven, the characteristic, as it were, of modern progress. Far
away to the Westward I noticed the darkly-fringed shores of the Esse-
quibo, while the Demerara rolling past beneath us ran like a silver
band~ttirough the smiling plain, and waltzed its waters into the greedy
ocean.

64. The peaceful and romantic valleys, mountains and plains of our1
native land do not possess the infinite charm and delightful matutinal
fragrance of the tropics : — the wanton vegetation, the vigorous fresh
green amidst a dense dark foliage, the generally prevalent marked con-
trast of conformation in the world of plants, the tropical climate, the

18 GEORGETOWN AND Mt COUNTRYMEN

tropical sky is all foreign to them. It was long before we could turn
away from the charming picture, which changed with every second while
fresh attractions and new surprises showed up with every peep, whether
we took it near or far, over the breadth of the ocean, or across the ex-
tensive plains of the coast-line. Hardly had we left the Lighthouse
Tower than we heard the question "Qu'est-ce-que-dit?" repeatedly asked
us from out of the neighbouring palms and foliage trees. In wonder and
surprise we turned to look for the inquisitive fellow, at first however in
vain, until we finally found him to be a yellowish bird about the size of
a thrush, that must have been continually plagued with the most violent
curiosity, for it renewed its enquiries without cessation. It was the
Tyrannus sulphuratus Vieill., the "Qu'est-ce-que-dit" of the Colonists.
To be or wish to l>e a Stoic, would have been impossible to-day, because
every step brought something new to claim the whole of my interest and
curiosity, so that at last I seemed to be like the boy from the country
visiting the big city for the first time, when he finds his fairy fancy-
pictures far and away surpassed by the brilliant shop-fronts, and the
'everlasting scurry, hurry and hustle of the inhabitants.

65. The streets through which we roamed were broad and intersect-
ed with spacious canals, while the wooden houses, rarely more than two
storeys high, that stretched along them, were shaded by a row of palms
(Areca oleracea or Cocos nucifera) : with few exceptions a garden en-
closed each one, which was divided off from its neighbours by a canal or
ditch. Nature, the ever-labouring mindful mother was the one and
only gardener to have a free hand in almost all these grounds, though I
also found several which were not only very tastefully planned but were
kept in regulated cultivation by the ruling and attentive hand of Man.
Nice and prettily-winding paths, bordered with the most glorious Orange-
trees richly overladen with their golden fruit ; Erythrinas ; big bushel
of flourishing "Oleander on pleasant verdant lawns; many a Jasmine,
Clcrodcndrum , Ixora, Poinciana, Bauhinia, Quassia, Melia, Gardenia,
Punica, lusticia, Hibiscus rosa sinensis and chinensis overstrewn with
their large red blossoms; Centifolias and Monthly Roses, which with
the scorching climate had assumed a burnt colour; Balsams that grew
like huge shrubs; Passion Flowers, Clitorias and Bignonias, the stems,
branches and twigs of which had changed into floating garden-plots—
everything reminded me that I was treading the land of Plenty, the land
of Mighty Vegetation. Negroes with heavy loads on their heads, accom-
panied by little boys and girls likewise securely balancing a bottle ov
basket with glass-ware in similar fashion, mulattoes of all shades of
colour, carts with jarring wheels dragged by panting mules, all hurried
and scurried past me in such bewildering confusion that what with all
this disturbance, my attention was at last completely lost upon any one
particular object until it found itself centred once more upon a negresy
who was carrying upon her head a bucket full of crystalline material.
I could not satisfy myself that the stuff was really pure ice before touch-
ing it, and a voice close by, "By God, pure Ice !" expressed the sensations
which the surprise, still obvious, had aroused in me. "Ice, by God, pure
Ice!" Agreeably shocked I turned round and behind me stood a vigorous
young fellow whose good-natured astonishment immediately indicated
be was German. My greeting of "Good morning, countryman !" almost

NATURAL HISTORY. 19

choked his South German "God greet you" (Griisch Gott) I After our
mutual delight and wonder had subsided, I learnt from the genial S\va-
bian that he had arrived the day before in company with 100 Rhineland-
ers, 'Wurteinburgers, and Swabians who, like their countrymen before
them, wanted to try their luck. A second ship from Madeira, with Por-
tuguese, attracted by similar ideas, reached port at the same time as
they did : several pale, lean, male figures, with their heads covered in a
dark blue cloth cap tapering to a 3-inch high rat- tail tip, confirmed the
truth of the statement.

66. My brother's voice — he had recognized us in the crowd — soon
brought us to his side; he was also astonished on discovering a country-
man in our acquaintance.

67. My brother, unfortunately, did not find the house that his friend
Mr. Stutchbury had hired in advance foi him, quite ready for occupation,
and was consequently obliged in the meantime to take some other rooms
that he had formerly occupied.

68. Tired and bewildered with all that we had seen, we now return-
ed to the ship to arrange for the landing of our things, and were not a
little ,surprised to find, on stepping aboard, that' Mrs. Rothwell had
already prepared an excellent breakfast consisting of the loveliest
Oranges, Pine-apples, and other tropical fruits hitherto unknown to
me : the first were exquisite, the mealy fruits of the Musa sapientum and
Mangifera indica Linn, on the contrary, being none the less relished
for their sweet and delicate taste. Night, that comes on so suddenly
here was fast approaching when, with the luggage most required, we
took possession of our temporary quarters.

69. Yesterday evening's or rather last night's wealth of charm was
repeated to-day to perhaps even a higher degree. Considering that the
most accurate description by a poetic soul however richty blessed must
ever remain but a silhouette of the real article — for language^ of the
most'ardent nature can never enravish and ennoble the reader's thoughts:
with the sentiments that captivate and overwhelm the traveller who de-
rives pleasure from such experiences — how could I venture to express
the feelings that stirred my inmost soul when, after sunset, the almost
overpowering balsamic fragrance from the gardens opposite penetrated
each open window, when every stalk and every leaf of the gently sway-
ing foliaged domes of luxuriant trees seemed to whisper in an unknown
tongue "Stranger, don't forget us, but keep the memory of this enchanting
Present ever green until the Future winds us and our mates in its pale
and chilly shroud, when all will finally be forgotten." How can I des-
cribe what I felt when the shrill chirrupy chorus of countless Cicadas
and crickets resounded high and low, when the cloudy haze, illumined
by the brightly shining moon and Venus' equally brilliant star-light,
enveloped the whole of the surroundings in a semi-transparent veil that
was being crossed by thousands of luminous insects such as Lampyris
phosphorca Linn., when fantastically dressed wayfarers, with open um-
brellas to protect them from the harmful moon-beams and equally nox-
ious evening dews, filled the intersecting streets, or when the lightly
wafted~breeze brought over to us from distant portions of the city the
crude and noisy music of melancholy songs, of negroes at a dance. I
sadly missed for once the pleasant evening twilight hours of home.
America recognises no intermediate step in the change between these

20 PEELIMINART IMPRESSIONS,

fwo divisions of time : Day presses closely onto Night, as Night presses
into day.

70. Overwhelmed with all these vivid impressions, it was only late
in the evening that I turned into my hammock where I nevertheless vainly
sought repose : the open window allowed thousands of bloodthirsty mos-
quitoes to sprinkle the first drops of bkterness in my cup that was yet
bubbling In an ecstacy of delight,

71. Daybreak at quarter to six, with yesterday's bustle of blacks and
half-breeds renewed afresh, already found me at the open casement.

72. The news of our arrival must Have spread quickly over the city
for the friends coming to greet and welcome my Brother soon filled one
rooms. After introducing me to the Governor and families of his ac-
quaintance, I became so inundated with invitations that I spent my first
week in a real whirl of enjoyment when the impressions recently exper-
ienced were blotted out by new ones, until at last, after settling down
into our own quarters and unpacking and arranging our effects, the
Quiet'that had been lost sight of, helped somewhat to revive them.

73. The pretty little house situate in Camp Street, surrounded by
slender~palms and plenteously-shaded foliage-trees, with its cool and
airy gallery and its widely projecting roof was satisfactory from every
point of view. The only thing to worry over was the high rent that my
brother was forced to pay, for although it only contained some small
rooms, he was nevertheless charged 54 dollars a month : to be added to
this were the extraordinarily high expenses of living, which made me
very uneasy concerning my annual travelling allowance of 432 dollars.
Georgetown is one of those cities of South America where almost every
hour's stay has to be weighed against gold.

74. According to the plans laid down for efficiently carrying out
my work, I ought now to set down in chronological order all my exper-
iences in the city proper, as well as its environs, in fact give an account
of its whole inner and outer activities during the longer or shorter visits
I paid it at different times. But to avoid repetition I am including my
subsequent observations with to-day's and yesterday's and will attempt
to sketch so far as it lies in my power, a true picture of the civilised
portions of 'this English possession, which bids fair to be of so much
promise in the future, as well as of its capital, and propose commencing
with its historical, statistical and topographical aspects. I leave it to the
judgment of my readers whether they approve or rejed the method of
description followed.

75. Contemporary historians are by no means in agreement as to
who really was the first to find Guiana, considering that its discoverv
has been ascribed by some to Columbus, by others again to Vasco Nunnez,
and even in part to > Diego de Ordas who could only have landed on the
Guiana coast in 1531. The earliest appreciable attempts at Colonisation
were at all events established by the Dutch since 1581. but. as thev
themselves found traces of past cultivation of the soil the Spaniards in
tjme* previous to them, must have sporadically oc upied the who e
stretch of coast as far as the mouth of the Essequibo.»

: • —

* These historical notes, sees, 75 to 79, are unreliable. (J.E.)

EARIA' HISTORICAL DATA. 21

76. During the years 1586 to 1596 the Dutch already had founded
several settlements, from which they were nevertheless driven by the
Spaniards with the assistance of Indians in 1596. Not at all
disheartened by these failures, Jost van der Hooge established a new Col-
ony called Nova Zeelandia, which, by 1613 must have found itself in
flourishing circumstances. In 1602 the Zeeland merchants van Peeren,
van Ehee, de Moor, de Vries, and van Hoorn arranged for a voyage to
the Gujana Coast under the command of van Kyk Hendrickzoon, for
which purpose a charter granting them exclusive trade-rights was drawn
up for them by the States-General.

77. In 1621 the States-General undertook to supply the Colonists1
with Negro slaves from Africa, and now van Peer, who, with his
companions, had been driven out of the Orinoco, commenced operations
afresh at Berbice, whereupon a new colonisation company, leaving the
Texel under command of David Pieterse de Vries landed in September,
1654, upon the island of Mecoria between the rivers Cayenne and Wia.
Here again the emigrants found an old castle, which the French must
have built, just as van der Hooge found a similar one in 1596 at the
junction of the Essequibo with the Mazaruni the builders of which were
probably Portuguese.

78. These various attempts seem to have induced several Englishmen
to settle in the so-called "Wild Coast" Colonies : van der Hooge already
found a party established in the Surinam River under Captain Marshall
who, with about 60 companions, had settled on the site of what had
formerly been a large Indian village, Paramaribo, but which never-
theless had to be abandoned owing to the many incursions of the Caribs.

79. These attempts of the Dutch and English proved the signal
for other nations, which were no\v reciprocally dispossessed and
re-established in one perpetual change. Thus in 1640 the French took
possession of the earlier settlement of Paramaribo which they subsequent-
ly abandoned for the same reasons that had prompted the English, and in
1652 the latter were once more its masters. Equally potent quarrels
arising within the States-General considerably hindered the prosperous
progress of colonisation along the Coast until, in 1678, a treaty was
concluded with the van Peere family whereby it was to retain posession
of Berbice colony "for ever." The changing fortunes of War, however,
during the past two hundred years brought the colonies of Berbice,
Essequibo, and Deinerara from out of the hands of the Dutch into
those of the French, English and Spanish with the result that by aq
agreement between Great Britain and the Netherlands arrived at in 1812
they were handed over to the former on the stipulation that the Dutch
owners were to retain trading relations, in limited restriction, with
Holland. Under the sovereignty of Great Britain, agriculture and
trade rapidly advanced, for already by that date steam engines were
generally employed at the sugar-mills. The census of January, 1817
gave a Negro slave population of 77,163 for the Essequibo and
Demerara Districts, and 24,529 for the Berbice : consequently the three
districts between them owned 101,712 slaves, while at the same time
the free population amounted to 8,000. From all statistical accounts
this was the largest population the colony had hitherto held: it was

22 EAST COAST INSURRECTION.

however considerably diminished in the year 1819 through the ravages
of yellow fever.*

80. Canning's firm determination to improve the lot of the entire
slave population in all the British colonial possessions, and to pave
the way even for emancipation, was laid before the House of Commons,
in 1823, and copies of this noble-minded resolution of the great statesman
were despatched to Murray, the British Guiana Governor. For some
reason or another the latter omitted publishing it without being able to
prevent its contents becoming known. The earliest intimation of the
existence of such a document, according to which something was said
to have been done by England for the freedom of their slaves, was first of
all received from one of the Governor's servants by certain headmen —
black overseers of slaves on the individual plantations under whose direc-
tion the other slaves work — and the rumour soon spread over the entire
East Coast that the order for their complete freedom had been received
in the colony from England, but that His Excellency and the slave owners
had kept the matter secret, and were trying to prevent it being carried
into effect.

81- It was owing to this report that a conspiracy was hatched
amongst the whole of the East Coast slaves according to which those
who joined were to seize all the Europeans on the Plantaions, and then
betake themselves in a body to the capital, and demand their freedom
by force. The plans for this uprising were drawn up by two young
negroes; Paris, a boatman of Plantation Good Hope, and Jack Glad-
stone of Plantation Success.

82. Under veil of the greatest secrecy, and unsuspected by their
masters the scheme matured, and the 18th August was fixed for iU
execution. On the morning of that day the revolt blazed into flame,
the rebels promptly seized practically all the Estates' owners, as well as
the whole white population in general, who, some of them bound and
some of them stretched on the stocks, were most cruelly ill-treated by
the unrestrained and vindictive insurgents. Immediately upon receiving
notice of it, the Governor headed a detachment of Colonial cavalry and
started for the East Coast to quell the disturbance, but the superior
forces of the raging rebels forced his speedy return. That same night
all the free slaves were armed so as to permit of their leaving for the
Coast at daybreak with the regular troops and remaining soldiery to
liberate the imprisoned Europeans.

83- The insurgents, 2,000 in number, were collected at Plantation
Bachelor's Adventure. A fair number were supplied with fire-arms
which they nevertheless did not know how to use: the remainder carried
cutlasses bayonets fixed on poles, and similar weapons. Before
Colonel Leahy, m command of the troops, took extreme measures, he
tried to persuade the licentious crowds to lay down their weapons and
s ate the reason for their mutinous conduct, but he was informed
• that their freedom and nothing else was the cause of their rising- the

THE EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION. 23

King had already despatched orders to this effect, without their having
been told a word : that these had been illegally and irregularly withheld
by the Governor in conjunction with the Planters, and they were now,
mutually determined to obtain their rights by force."

84. In spite of the Colonel's remonstrance that the statement was
entirely false, that there was not a single word about complete civic
freedom to be read in the royal decree, the insurgents persisted in their
purpose and Colonel Leahy, being met by an insulting rejoinder on a
last demand to lay down their arms, found himself forced to give the
order to fire. After a murderous massacre the rebels were completely
dispersed and, leaving behind a number of dead and wounded, put to
flight. From the 20th to 30th August while Colonel Leahy and his troops
were busy hunting for weapons on the different estates, and looking for
the ringleaders, several of whom he captured, Mr. Hillhouse, followed
by a considerable commando of Caribs and Warraus scoured the forests
and seized the scattered fugitives. Many who were caught with
weapons in their hands were generally shot or hanged on the spot,
amongst them Paris, one of the arch-conspirators, while others, guilty
of less active participation, received from 200 to 1,000 lashes.

85. But the trial of one Mr. John Smith, a missionary of the London
Missionary Society, in whose church or very close vicinity the plan for
the insurrection had been concocted, aroused the greatest sensation.
The accusation made against him was that he had not only inflamed
sedition by his preaching, but that he had become cognisant of the
entire plot without denouncing it. He was tried by court-martial, found
guilty of high treason, and .sentenced to death with the right of
petitioning the King for mercy, but died in prison before the Pardon
arrived from England.

86« The expenditure which this uprising cost the colony ran into
200,000 dollars. It was the lust attempt of the Negroes to obtain freedom
by force, for the ever memorable 1st August, 1838, reduced the term of
apprenticeship, originally fixed at four years, to two, it being felt that
during the latter period the colonies would only have to suffer stilFmore,
and one willingly gave the slaves, ill-treated up to then, that which
they more than once had striven to obtain in vain by rebellion. On
that day a new Era rose for all the British colonies. Out of the 20
millions voted by Parliament for giving effect to the Act a sum of
£4,268,809 was distributed as compensation among the Guiana Planters,
though the value of all the slaves in Guiana, reckoned by the purchase
prices from 1822 to 1830, amounted to £9,489,559.

87. It was to be feared that the temporary effects of Emancipation
could only be detrimental to the economic and manifest welfare of
Guiana, and these fears were realised to an extent of which perhaps no
one even had an inkling. All the labour supply lay in the hands of the
African slaves and, owing to the conditions and prevailing climate was
the only source to be tapped. The sudden and unprepared-for transi-
tion from the condition of a slave who had no will of his own to that of
a self -determining free citizen was one of the most powerful means of
promoting the in-born and hereditary indolence of the negro. Work had
hitherto only been a burden to this hitherto despised and ill-treated class

, forced by the rod of correction, had to submit to it: Emanti nation

24 DWINDLING LABOUR SUPPLY.

granted him the unalienable right over his own destiny, and at the same
. time the liberty to give free scope to his in-born tendency to habitual
* * idlenesstrhe hitherto bustling hands disappeared from the estates, and
every former labourer there tried to purchase at the lowest rates his own
piece of land : he could get his living from orit of its produce with the
minimum of trouble because his ordinary wants and the inexhaustible
productiveness of the Tropics forced him to no great efforts. The scarc-
ity of labour arising from this cause increased the daily pay to such an
extent that the free negro who worked for one or two days could earn
enough to live as he liked, comfortably, for the remainder of the week.
.Without exaggeration it may be stated that the estates los't two thirds of
their labour supply which could by no manner of means be replaced, so t
that particular works which had to be taken in hand at definite times,
however unusually fatiguing they were and however quickly they had to
be completed one after the other, could not be undertaken at all or only
/ very .inadequately executed^

88. The European labourer thanks the man who gives him work : the
free negro on the other hand, in addition to his pay, asks his employer

/ to thank him for dedicating his services to him. C^o as to enable them
to continue part-cultivation of the estates, the planters naturally compete
with one another in the pay they offer these men and, even if offering
the highest wages, one must still be considered fortunajte to keep a ser-
vant, because the slightest inducement causes him to throw up his job : he
knows quite well that ten other employers will receive him with open
arms. Plantations that w/ere formerly worked by 4-600 slaves do not
possess more than 100 now. With the scarcity of labour, capital was also
naturally withdrawn, and one estate after another went to ruin. Cotton'
cultivation had first of all to be abandoned, because it could not enter into
competition writh the North American article carried on with slave la-
bour. All cotton plantations were turned into cattle farms and pasture
lands : at present the coffee estates are following suit. 5

89. In 1841 Guiana owned but 213 Sugar estates, 67 coffee plantations,
and 31 cattle farms. The produce of all the Plantations in 1842 amount-
ed to 52,043,897 Ibs. sugar, 1,543,652 gallons rum, and 1,214,010 Ibs. cof-
fee estimated at a total value of 4,583,370 dollars: as compared with
previous years this gives a decrease, during the past five, of 55,762,352
Jbs. sugar, 1,436.644 gallons rum, and 3,061,722 Ibs. coffee at a total value
of 5,648,269 dollars.

90. The chief solution for the best measures to remedy the present
precarious state of the Colony lies in answer to the question : "Will
the black population return to the condition they were in formerly i.e.
will they want to work?"— to which, up till now as I have already stated,
they only feel constrained so far as their own sweet will and momentary
needs may prompt them.

91. However many also the efforts hitherto made to replace the
lost supply of labour by Immigration, they have almost all proved un-
successful on account of the awful climatic conditions, and so far have
not managed to restore the declining value of the landed property.
East Indians, Negroes, the unfortunate prisoners on forfeited slave-ships,
Canadians, Portuguese from Madeira, even Germans all came on here
With the result that already by 1842 Guiafaa had 20,071 immigrants

FIRST TYPE or IMMIGRANTS. 25

brought out at a cost of 380,000 dollars : yet, with the exception of the
two first-named, none of them withstood the climate : the largest number
fell a sacrifice to the never satiated Angel of Destruction.*

92. The tew Hill-Coolies justified to the fullest extent the hopes that
had been placed on them, because with the honest will to work they are
the best to defy the attacks of the tropical atmosphere. The poor 400
Germans, mostly Khinelanders and Wurteinburgers, enticed here by an
emigration agent of the name of Kies between 1839 and ;the beginning of
18 H, had the best will to work, but almost all succumbed to the awful
climatic influences . Notwithstanding that the larger number of them la-
boured practically speaking only in the shaded coffee fields, yellow fever
broke out amongst them within a few months of landing, when it claimed
many a victim, and finally — particularly in the second and third year
after arrival — raged amongst them to such a degree that it pretty well
snatched away the remainder. It is not to be denied that although the
majority of them drew this terrible epidemic upon themselves through
the unrestricted taste for strong drink, particularly rum, of which they
obtained as much as they liked on the estates, there were nevertheless
others who kept themselves completely free from this vice. On my depar-
ture from Demerara in June 1844 some 20 of the Germans were still left.
The 10,000 immigrant Portuguese died to just the same extent and at the
time of my departure had dwindled in a very short period down to 3,000.
Intemperance in the use of spirituous liquors had far away less to do
with this terrible mortality of the Portuguese than their filth and sordid
avarice that induced them to buy up provisions which even a negro would
not have eaten.

93. The Portuguese of Guiana are the Jews of Europe. With the same
perseverance, the same calculating craft and guile, after making a point
of discovering the little weaknesses of everj^ seller, they will wheedle him,
and soon close the bargain to their advantage. If this trick fails and the
vendor kicks them out of the front, the back door finally opens the way
to the end in view. Dealing honestly by means like these in numbers
of articles old and new, they hurry off to the more remote estates whence
it is not long before they are back to the city with double and three times
the amount of money originally paid, to commence their haggling afresh,
until they finally acquire a capital of from 4-600 dollars when they re-
turn to Madeira.

94. Only an Egoist without a conscience and without a character can
ask the German or European workman in general to emigrate to this
portion of South America. Everybody who lets himself be inveigled will
fall an irretrievable victim to those diseases which the European rarely

* Dr Carlos Fiulay, of Havana, first promulgated the theory of the propagation of yellow
Fever by the mosquito before the Royal Academy in that city in 1881. while the experi-
ments of Reed, Carroll, Agramonte and Lazear, of the American Board, thoroughly and
finally implicated Stegomyia fatciata as the agent of its transmission in 1900. JSow. twenty
years' later, Steyomgia fasciata is as ubiquitous among us as ever it was. and our freedom from
Yellow Fever is not to be attributed to the activity of our Sanitary Authorities. A plausible
theory was suggested in one of the numbers of the Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasi-
tology for 1919, bv an American Surgeon General, to which reference may be made. It is
certainly unfair to lay so much emphasis on the taste for strong drink as a factor in the
mortality from this disease ; this taste has undergone uo atrophy 111 the intervening years
(F.G,R.)

2€> ESTATES' INCOMES COMPARE!).

withstands and will never escape so long as he has to earn his bread as
a labourer under the scorching sun in the plantation fields.*

95. England's grand achievement that restored to millions the human
rights of which they had been robbed, has at any rate proved a grievous
blow to all ,West Indian Colonies because it undermined the basis upon
which they had been founded and had flourished. Life must bud afresh
from a healthier germ for the growth of which Guiana again, to a large
extent, bears all the favourable conditions. South America has as yet
had no history of its own but there is a very rich harvest gathering to-
ward its development as soon as all the contradictions with which its
political expansion is still burdening her, can be overcome.

Ofy The extraordinary decline in profit and income That took place
throughout all the Estates immediately after emancipation is shewn in
the accompanying 12-year review, based on the official data with which
I was most readily furnished on making application for them. ,The total
amount of annual income is estimated by the total customs duties levied
on similar quantities of the staple products mentioned : —

TOTAL OF ALL ESTATES' INCOMES FOR THE YEAUS 1831 TO 1843.

Year.

Sugar in
Duich Ibsf

Rum in
Gallons.

Molasses
in
Gallons.

Coffee
in
Dutch Ibs.J

Cotton
in
3utch Ibs.

Estimated
value of
whole
in
Dollars.

From sale
Plantains
and Cattle
and other
Agricul.
3roduce in
Dollars.

Total in-
come in so
far as it is
determined
>y customs
duties in
Dollars.

1831

97,050,196

4,261,864

3,140,149

2,825,070

834,123

4,501 ,297

318,403

1,827,083.

1832

96,381,959

2,820,594

4,502,473

6,410,535

1,157,709

7,659,267

293,134

1,442,750

1833

99,106,827

2,516,138

5,121,301

4,490,596

954,957

7,693,108

258,789

1,326,166

1834

81,085,483

2,631,630

3,288,586

3,C35,556

926,944

6,035,556

1,343,666

1835

107,586,405

3,743,687

3,105,421

3,065,742

867,942

8,467,371

252,758

1.279,417

1836

107,806,249

2,980,296

4,035,569

4,275,732

656.902

10,231,639

245,233

1,459,833

1837

99,851,195

1,975,260

3,405,906

4,066,200

803,200

9,076,234

355,306

1,397,066

1838§

88,664,885

2,086,052

3,132,675

3,143,543

614,920

7,212,274

254,669

2;425,958

1839

60,061,240

2,328,566

1,349,012

3,008,978

285,942

6,586,776

398,580

2,815,876

1840

62,031,921

2,102,378

], 801,742

1,693,309

60,490

8,098,771

344,377

2,525,598

1841

52,043,897

1.543,652

1,584,806

1,214,010

19,200

4,583,370

361,450

2,058,878

1812

54,674,009

1,470,830

2,020,354

1,924,218

3,008

§ = Emancipation of the Slaves.

f = 100 Ibs. Dutch = 110 English (or 105.8 Leipzig pounds avoirdupois.)

+ =» Exclusive of the remaining agricultural income.

Europeans have lived for generations in Barbados, for1 example, without mental or
physical degeneration Probably, if Malaria chiefly, but also the other preventable diseases,
were eliminated, this Colony would be found to be almost as wholesome a place for the
kuropeau as his native home. (F.G.R.)

ANALYSIS OF POPULATION. $

97- According to the Census of 5th October 1841 the whole popula-
tion of British Guiana consists of

Creoles, born in British Guiana 65,252

Creoles, immigrant from West Indies 9,899

Africans 15,796

Portuguese from Madeira 2,219

English, Irish and Scotch 2,162

French, Dutch and German 445

Coolies (Asiatic) 343

North Americans 159

Native Country not mentioned 1,320

Total 97,595

Up to 15th October 1841, the following immigrants were yet

landed : —

From the West India Islands 2,285

From Madeira 3,066

From Africa 713

Total 6,064

From January 1842 up to January 1843 : —

From Madeira 1,663

From the West India Islands 966

From Africa 2,218

Total, 4,847

Including the total number of immigrants from the years 1835 to
1843, it will be seen that in this interval there landed in Guiana : —
Portuguese from Madeira 10,458

Inhabitants of the West Indian Islands 6,566
Freed Slaves and Emigrants from Africa 4^610
Coolies from Asia 560

Germans and Maltese 400

Native country not mentioned, who came
partly from over the West Indies Islands,
and from captured slave ships, and took
work 8,397

Total 30,981

Consequently on the 1st January 1843 the total population of Brit-
ish Guiana, exclusive of aboriginal Indians, amounted to 120,000 souls,
of which 23,000 alone fall to the share of Georgetown, the capital.

98. After these short prefatory remarks on the general history and
statistics, I turn to the capital itself. Georgetown, or Stabroek during the
Butch supremacy, is situate in 6°49'20" lat. N. and 58° 11 '30" long. W. on
the eastern or right bank of the Demerara Kiver — not on the western

2S EFFORTS AT

bank as Codazzi mistakenly places it in his so important atlas of Colom-
bia,— and numbers 23,000 inhabitants of whom not less than 19,000 are
Mulattoes and Negroes. The white population consists for the most part
of English, because but very few of the Dutch who were formerly settled
here prolonged their stay when the Colony was ceded to Great Britain.
The negroes on the other hand constitute by far the larger number of in-
habitants, and except for Water Street which runs directly along the
bank of the Demerara and is only occupied by merchants whose store-
houses and wharves reach into the River, there is not a single thorough-
fare that is exclusively inhabited by Europeans. From the way that it
has been laid out, the city at first sight shows the regular straightgoing
Dutchman, because all the older buildings are in alignment, so that the
streets collectively cross at right angles. The latter are generally wide
and divided down their centre by canals which communicate With one
another and with the River : the two sides of each street thus separated
are joined up with a number of bridges. Owing to the extraordinary
moisture of the atmosphere, and also on account of the situation of the
city being on the immediate coast-line and alluvial soil, the two-to-
three-storeyed houses are almost always raised from off the ground by 3
to 4-ft . high hard-wood posts ; they are lined up to the roof with strong
boards, and covered with shingles of the same material, the whole being
painted in darker or lighter oil colouv according to the owner's taste.
Pretty gardens surround the natty structures, ornamented as they are
with verandahs and porticoes, and so lend a most pleasing exterior to
the streets which are alwrays being kept sweet and clean by the so-called
Town Gang, a kind of Sanitary Police. Amongst the sanitary regulations
is one prohibiting any pig being seen on the streets, when it is outlawed,
like dogs without the licence-token in our larger cities, and Becomes a
welcome spoil for the Gang. As soon as the negro children, scuffling
about in front of the door, see the well-known brigands making their ap-
pearance at the farther end of the street, they will rush into the house
and warn the mother of her prospective loss : and yet almost daily the
stiffest skirmishes continue to take place between the owners and the
<<souvenir"-seeking Health Officers, which often give rise to the most
laughable and ridiculous scenes. If the owner succeeds in dragging the
squeaking and grunting beast out of the hands of the merciless officers
over his threshold he saves it and is not punished. Unfortunately,
such a squabble at which hundreds of other negroes wrill collect out of the
sincerest sympathy Avithout daring to lend an active hand under pain of
severe punishment, mostly ends to the detriment of the unfortunate bone
of contention, because the Town Gang carry large cuftlasses with which,
directly the victory threatens to incline to the owner's side, they will
'chop the pig's legs or otherwise hinder its escape. I have been eye-
witness at scenes that not alone Avere worth the brush of a Breughel
twice or thrice over, but also afforded demonstration of the hardness,
bordering on the truly marvellous, of a negro skull.

99. Quite close to the mouth of the Demerara lies Fort William
Frederick, built of mud and fascines. Although it is of course extremely
weak and could only withstand the fire of an advancing flotilla for a short
while, the landing of one might nevertheless turn out to be difficult, be-
cause not only the Fort b'ut the whole coast-line in general finds its

GEORGETOWN MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT. 29

strongest and most powerful defence in its approaches — the marshy bot-
tom of the shallow water together with the ebb and flow. The garrison
consists of a detachment of Artillery under the command of a Major.

100. Near the Fort rises the Lighthouse tower, east
of which the beautiful but unoccupied Camp House,
the residence of former Governors, who in those day^ were also
the Troop-commanders, peeps clandestinely through the thick
foliage of giant trees: the lovely, large and roomy Eve Leary Bar-
racks are attached to it, and the two Military Hospitals border the
immense parade ground. The barracks could boldly measure swords with
all the institutions of that nature that I have had the opportunity of see-
ing at home and abroad, and be certain of victory besides. The soldiers
sleep on mattresses in large airy quarters. Each of the hospitals with
their clean and neat kitchens, and their beautiful tanks, is estimated for
several hundred patients. As regards cleanliness and careful attention,
the military lazarets are particularly distinguishable from the Colonial
Hospital : the sick are even divided off into different wards according
to their complaints. The light construction of these buildings specially
possesses this great advantage, that what with the sultry and oppressive
temperature, it admits of a continual change of air which is still further
very greatly maintained by suitable ventilation. A shady alley-way of
thickly -leaved trees and slender palms leads to the blessed God's acre for
the officers, the soldiers' cemetery being on the farther side of the
Barracks. The whole garrison of Guiana at the time of my stay, in
addition to the artillery mentioned, was made up of the 52nd regiment
of the Line, and a few companies of the first West India Regiment.

101. Whatever respect everybody must have for the oft-tried valour
of the last mentioned Regiment which was especially demonstrated in
the negro uprising of 1824 when folks fought their own countrymen, it is
nevertheless to be admitted that I could hardly refrain from laughing
when for the first time I saw filing past me these black figures in red uni-
forms with their mis-shapen extremities stuck into white pantaloons. The
officers are Englishmen. England possesses in the West Indian colonies
two such African regiments which at the present time are specially re*
cruited from captured slave-ships. When one of these runs into a Colonial
port, a recruiting officer goes on board and looks out for the fittesf peo-
ple for military service. Every one is of course willing to join the Col-
ours.

102. Though these young men of Mars in red uniforms and white
pantaloons, with their black fists, black features and curly woolly hair,
are already funny enough to look at, their faces nevertheles": present an
appearance something truly awful owing to the different tribal marks or
Totems which in earliest youth are burnt or cut into their forehead, tem-
ples, cheek, mouth, and additionally, in other cases, /to the filing of the
incisor teeth to a point. The larger number come from the Coromantyn,
and are recognised by the three or four long cuts on each cheek; H;he
others are Congo-negroes, natives of Mozambique and Sierra Leone. At-
tached to the military forces proper is an Officer of Enginers who has to
superintend the Royal buildings, and lives close to the Barracks.

103. In the Stabroek portion of the present city of Georgetown that
has still retained its name from former times, arid close to the river,

50 CLIMA.TIC INFLUENCES ON DISEASE.

stands the Public Buildings, which includes all the, Official Departments.
Its purity of style shows that architects are likewise to be found in
Georgetown who have kept free from the mixture so affected at the pres-
ent day. The huge imposing structure which is detached, is built of brick
and ornamented with ample but simple stucco, at an expenditure of under
£50,000. All public executions take place on the splendid, large, open,
space in front of its chief facade.* Alongside are the Main Guard and
the pleasant Scotch Church : some\vhat farther away is the Cathedral of
the Episcopal Church, likewise of brick, which cost about £26,000. Christ
Church, not less imposing, was built by a company of shareholders. The
Church of the Catholic community, several years ago, when Guiana warf
enlarged to an apostolic vicariate under the titular bishop of Oriense
with five priests, was raised to a Cathedral. Besides the church build-
ings mentioned, there are eight Chapels under the charge of Wesley-
ans, Baptists, the London Missionary Society, and Mico Charities. It is
surprising that only an exceptionally few negroes pass over to the State
Church, most of them joining Catholicism and the different clmrch com-
munities, particularly the Baptists.

104. I have already spoken of the new Colonial Hospital and need
only add, that as regards construction, it can be held up as a model for
the tropics. The whole is intended for 300 patients. Not far off is to be
seen the Hospital for Sick Seamen, with the Madhouse closely annexed.
Five-sixths of the latter's occupants are negroes.

105. Yellow fever stands at the head of the diseases prevailing in
Georgetown and its immediate environs as well as generally the whole
coast-line : following it are intermittent and acute fevers, the oft-times
very dangerous dysentery, diarrhoea and dropsy. Pthisis, like the differ-
ent forms of consumption in general is unknown on the coast, and people
so afflicted coming here from Europe or North America have found com-
plete recovery. Syphilis in all its varying stages is found particularly
among the mulattoes and negroes, though it is far from being so des-
tructive in its effects as in colder climates : amongst the Indians of the
interior it is quite unknown. Almost without exception diseases run an
uncommonly quick course, so that Health and Sickness border on a mar-
ginal limit that is hardly ever experienced in colder zones. In perfect pos-
session of all one's strength and energies, one has no guarantee that he
may not IK* robbed of them within the next hour : on the other hand there
appears to be a markedly increased vitality in the transition from serious
'sickness, absolute exhaustion and weakness, to the restoration of com-
plete health — the convalescence is just as rapid as the onset.t

«!_ .

* The Demerara Ice House Hotel is now situate practically in the centre of this space.
(J.B.)

f If we omit Yellow Fever, this is almost a faithful picture of present-day conditions. The
observation with regard to the remarkably favourable influence exerted in Tuberculous disease
in those who have contracted it in Europe or N. America by residence in this Colony is amply
borne out by the writers' own experience. The conspicuous absence of glandular and bone-
infection in children, the universal prevalence of the pulmonary type, the remarkable constancy
of a family history of the disease, the very rapid course in the negro in this Colony are all
evidence in favour of its recent introduction and probably spread by the direct agency of in-
fected secretions. The observation with regard to Syphilis is a remarkably accurate one.
Tertiary byphilis is comparatively rare in the post mortem room, while Locomotor Ataxia and
General Paralysis are far less common in the negro and mulatto than in the European in
Europe, (F.G.R.)

COLONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 31

106. Amongst the buildings that ought to satisfy a spirit in search
of amusement, both Theatres take first place. The first was built in 1828
by subscription amongst several Dutchmen fond of the stage, for ama-
teur theatricals, a hobby that nevertheless soon got so absolutely tired of
being ridden, that the building would remain quite empty were not a
concert to fill its spacious flooring occasionally. The second was estab-
lished as a private speculation whither North America incites its Thalian
youth to cross the expanse of ocean in order to fan again, or continue
aflame the taste for Dramatic Art now dead or dying in British Guiana.

107. Two Turf-Club meetings — for where could Englishmen exist
without them? — which usually take place at the beginning and middle of
the year, were days' of diversion and enjoyment not only for the fashion-
able world, because they always finished up with Balls, but also for the
other classes of Georgetown residents. The' heyday however of these
pleasures was already past, because in the spring of 1844 the Club was
closed.

108. Every other day there appeared for a time three local sheets, the
Royal Gazette, as Government newspaper, the Guiana Times and the
Guiana Herald. The life of the last one was but short — it went almost as
quickly as it came.

109. Scientific Institutions have been attempted it is true from time to
time, but they either perished while yet in infancy or, respited awhile un-
der miserable circumstances, died at last from internal consumption — a
cause of mortality otherwise quite unknown in Guiana. I might almost
doubt whether one dare cast a more propitious horoscope for the three
new Societies founded in 1844, the Agricultural Union,* the Astronomi-
cal, and the Botanical Society, because the Colonists collectively show too
little interest in scientific aspirations, this being completely absorbed by
the racing and chasing after commercial and practical pursuits.

110. Two Financial Institutions, a branch of the West Indian Col-
onial Bank, and a local one, the British Guiana Bank, adjust money tran-
sactions. The lattert is founded on shares, of which 6,000 issued at £50
each are all in the hands of the Colonists : in 1830, 50 per cent, had al-
ready been paid on them. The report for 1840 shows a favourable state of
affairs : the profit on the original capital paid into it amounted to more
than 11$ per cent., of which however, only 4 per cent. Avas divided half-
yearly, the surplus being placed to the Reserve Fund.

111. A Saivings Bank was established a few years ago, and under the
supervision of Governor and Executive, has already, in the short course
of its existence, shewn excellent results.

112. The current coins of the Colony consist almost only of Spanish
whole, half, and quarter dollars. The Spanish dollar amounts to three
guilders colonial money, which is divided into 3, 2, 1, i, i, and I guilder-
pieces, and, for purposes of reckoning — no actual coinage — it is divided
into 100 cents, or 4 shillings and twopence- According to our German
money, the Spanish dollar is worth 1 thaler 10 silver groschen. Local
gold or copper money is not in circulation. The current paper money
in 1832 amounted to 2,199,758 Guilders, but is at present almost redeem-

* The present Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society.— (J.E.)
t Now absorbed in the Royal Bank of Canada. (Ed.)

$2 MARKETING CONDITIONS.

ed by proceeds from the land-tax and land-sales. As regards weights and
measures, English ones are taken as the standard, though the Dutch is
still far more used in the former case : the latter' s hundredweight differs
from the English by 10 Ibs., 110 Ibs. Dutch equalling 100 Ibs. English.
The whole receipts and expenditure for the Demerara, Essequibo and
Berbice Districts from 1st January to 31st December 1842 amounted
to:— Receipts 965,621 dollars 71% cents, Expenditure 965,621 dollars
71% cents. The credit balance of the Colonial Treasury on 1st January
1843 amounted to 103,749 dollars 91 cents.

113. The recently built Market-place situate in the neighbourhood of
the new Town Hall forms a highly interesting and lively picture, and as'
regards elegance of surroundings could undoubtedly be surpassed by but
few European ones. The whole place is bordered by the finest shops up to
which the clean and spotless butchers' stalls extend : these again lead to
the large slaughter-houses built over the river where all cattle have to be
killed and cleaned, only after which can they be brought in to the stalls.*
Ml dirt and useless remains immediately fall into the stream running

along below where they are straightv/ay caught in the greedy jaws of
countless sharks and other carnivorous fish or else carried away with the
Calling tide. The number of these voracious monsters in the neighbour-
hood of the slaughterhouse is inconceivable and God help him who acci-
dentally or imprudently slips into the water. In the case of a negro who
during my stay fell into the water one only found a few gnawed bones
when the tide fell not half an hour later.

114. But however plentifully the market is supplied with meat and
poultry, they both command an unusually high figure, for the reason
that, in the former case, unless sold on the same day as slaughtered the
meat turns bad, and in the latter because poultry-farming is no longer
fostered to the extent it used to be previous to Emancipation when the
slaves speriallv carried it on as a side business, although even now the
Hiain trade in fruit, ducks, fowls, turkeys and guinea-fowl is in the hands
of the negroes. A large number of geese and turkey are in the meantimo
imported from North America. The usual prices of meat and bread per
pound are : — beef 25 cents, ham 45 cents, pork 22 cents, and bread 11
cents. Fish and poultry are still dearer in comparison. Although the
rivers of Guiana harbour the most valuable and tasty fish, it is yet im-
possible to bring them down from the interior into the city in a fresK
Condition, because owing to the damp warm atmosphere they hardly re-
main eatable beyond a few hours: Georgetown has therefore to rest con-
tent with those caught in its immediate vicinity. North 'America almost
always supplies butter and such like, for which the ice-ships offer the
grandest opportunity. Fresh butter prepared in the Colony is one of the
greatest, luxuries: the cows supply so little milk that bu!tter manufacture
can only be thought of on the largest estates and farms.

115. It is unnecessary to state that the poor people can rarely pro-
vide themselves with fresh meat, Their main food accordingly consists of
imported salt meat, for even the local meat salted immed-
iately after slaughtering is nuite spoilt in a few days owimr to meteor-
ological conditions, and so-called salt-fish, a sort of stock material that is

* In 1920 one would have to search far and wide for the spotless butcher's stall ! (F.G.R.)

w
o

TROPICAL PRODUCTS. 33

brought onto the market from Newfoundland. A piece of such salt-fish
and a few roasted or boiled plantains form the ordinary fare of a negro
or poor mulatto.

116. The lively and interesting picture presented in the Meat and
Fish Market is repeated in a far better frame in the Fruit and Vegetable
one which is infinitely better supplied, for here the most varied kinds of
produce of the Tropical, mix with those of the Northern, clime, e.g. cucum-
ber, beans and spinach. Salad, cabbage and cauliflower are only' used
as so-called lettuce, since the first and second do ndt form a head and the
last does not produce a flower. Onions succumb to the same wanton over-
growth, which also leads only to rank leaves: they are therefore im-
ported in whole ship-loads from Madeira, and yet these are far behind
those of Europe in pungency, for they can be enjoyed raw, absolutely
without tears. Our early green peas find their representative in the pods
of the Cay anus indicus Spr. known under the name of "Pigeon Peas,"
which at all events surpass those of ours in delicacy of taste. Vegetables
just as much relished are supplied by the young green seed-vessels of
Hibiscus esculentiis Linn, and the leaves of Pliytolacca decandra Linn,
and Cleome pentaphylla that are used as spinach. Very favourite dishes
are the roots and young leaves of the Colocasia esculenta Schott
and the tasty "cabbage-palm" which the beautiful Oreodoxa, Areca oler-
acea Mart, and Euterpe oleracca Mart, supply. Naturally, quite a mod-
erate portion of the last dish costs the slim palm its life which has to be
sacrificed to obtain the edible portion : this consists of a compact cylin-
drical body in between where the fronds separate from the trunk, and
when properly prepared is nowise inferior to the finest European vege-
table and resembles our asparagus in flavour. There are still to be men-
tioned the roots of the "Arrow-root" (Maranta indlca Rose and M<.
ramosissima Wall.), the different species of Capsicum, and Zingibcr
officinale Rose., the huge calabashes, the large maize-cobs and cassava
roots, in addition to huge stacks of coco-nut, so celebrated for its milk
which however seemed to me so insipid that I thought I was drinking
nauseously sweet whey. Yarns ( Dioscorca alata and D. sativa Linn.} ,
Potatoes (Convolvolus Batatas Linn.), "sweet" Cassava roots (Janiplia
LoeffUngii Humt>. Bonp., a non-poisonous species closely allied to Jan-
ipha Manihot) which are eaten roasted, overloaded bunches of Plantain
(Musa paradisiaca Linn.) and the Bread-Fruit (Artocarpus inoisa and
A. integrifolia Linn.) constitute, when piled up in big heaps, the most
motley mixture. As the "Irish'' potato, in spite of every attempt, does not
thrive on account of the climate in conjunction with hard and vigorous
soil but only gives a 4 to 5 foot high legume, the last mentioned fruits
and roots might be regarded as its representatives. In addition to these
there still come no end of differently shaped, coloured, and fragrant trop-
ical fruits, tempting Pine-apples and juicy Oranges of all varieties, fruits
of the Sapodilla* (Achras sapota Linn.), Mango (Mangifera indica
Linn.), Passion fruit (Passi flora ediilis, P. quadrangularw, P. lauri-
sea grati#*ima Gaert, ), the Grias ranli flora Linn., Guava (Psidmm pyri-
ferum and P. pomiferum Linn.). Soursop (Anona muricata Linn.) the
juice of which provides the loveliest lemonade, Custard Apple ( Anonn

* Not in the text. They are the present-day vernacular terms. (Ed.)

34* COLONIAL IMVOIITS.

squamosa Linn.) with which one believes he is enjoying rich cream and
cinnamon, the Chrysophullum Cainito Linn., Paw-paw (Carica Papaya
Linn.), Passion fruit (Passiflora cdnlis, P. quadrangular is, P. lauri-
folia Linn., all three known under the name of Simitu and Granadilla),
the Myrtus Jambos Humb. Bonp., Banana (Musa- sa2)ientiim Linn.),
Melicocca bijuga Linn., and many others, under whatever name they go V
by. And along with all the squabbling, the pushing, and the yelling of the
negro women,the racing and the chasing of the busy buyers, fresh col-
umns of negro and mulatto in all shades of colour with filled baskets
on their heads were continually pressing their way in from the river-side,
striving to avoid coming too late with their loads. Fix all this together
in a frame, so that the prettily-coloured animated yet unfamiliar picture
can be surveyed at a glance, and then you will understand why, almost
every morning I strolled about in the midst of this moving mass of hu-
manity. But while the eye caught sight of the fruits of Africa and the
Eastern Indies, it searched in vain for those of Europe : not even a full
bunch of grapes was to be seen. It is true that many attempts have been
made to transplant grapes from Madeira, from the Cape, and from the
Rhine, but as with Prophet Isaiah's cousin, only sour ones were reaped.
The same thing happens with apple, pear, peach, and apricot trees, which
grow to a huge size, but rarely blossom, and never bear fruit, I have seen
lust as little of figs, strawberries, red currants, gooseberries, and rasp-
berries. The dried fodder for horses and mules is also imported from
North America and England, because the fodder-grasses of this place are
not in any sense adapted for hay: the European varieties of corn like-
wise do not thrive on the fatty soil and hot climate.

117. If we turn now from the Market to individual streets we find
here numbers of shops offering for sale everything that a European ac-
customed to luxury and high living can possibly wish for, because all
parts of the world vie in sending to Guiana what it lacks. North Amer-
ica furnishes flour, potatoes, salt fish, salted and smoked beef, and pork,
peas, biscuits, cheese, butter, herrings, horses, pigs, ducks> etc., rice,
onions, dried apples and pears, leather, furniture, iron-ware, and the
chief article of import, ice, which has become a most valuable staple pro-
duct, especiallv in Massachusetts whence it is exported to Bombay, Can-
ton, Madras, Calcutta, Mauritius, and the whole West Indian group of
Islands as far as Guiana. In Boston alone there are at present 16 com-
panies which ship ice to the East and West Indies, to New Orleans and
r>ther southern ports. By means of a machine, the ice is sawn into quad-
rangular blocks, at least 12 inches thick, and packed on board the vessel
with straw and hay in thin air-tight wooden boxes. These ice-ships are
utilised at the same time for the transport of fresh meat, butter, etc.
England on the other hand supplies Guiana with its manufactured arti-
cles, linen and cotton fabrics, silk-stuffs, jewellery croods, sails, towels.
*naps, tar, bricks, and tiles: in addition to these, with iron-, glass-, and
•'hina-ware, musical instruments, paper, cninpowder. lead, copper, tin and
/inc, silver-, and gold-ware, medicines, distilled waters and a number of
rlplicacies in hermeticallv sealed tins, beer and porter in bottles and bar-
Ms, Eranco, Snain, and Portugal send wine c.ci. champagne, bordeaux,
burgundy, madeira, claret and sherry, while Father 'Rhine even des-
patches his previous grape juice to the tables of the wealthier Colonists

THE COLONY'S CONSTITUTION. 35

where it naturally becomes quite a different drink, for during the course
of the journey it not only loses its aroma but also its colour.

118. In contrast with this, huge quantity of Imports, Export is lim-
ited solely to sugar, coffee, rum, syrup and an inconsiderable amount of
cacao. The former very extensive export of cotton has sunk to -nil since
Emancipation, because the material obtained by free men cannot com-
pete with that won by slave labour. Were the conditions of Guiana to
stand on the same footing with those of the Slave-States of America as
regards amount and cheapness of labour, an area of cultivation would
then present itself right here along a stretch of some 280 miles of coast-
line— from the mouth of the Corentyn to that of the Orinoco — where all
kinds of cotton shrub could be grown with the most magnificent results.
119. But in spite of goods and manufactured products being for the
most part imported from Europe and North America, there is no lack
whatever of mechanics and artificers : these are almost generally Euro-
peans though the mulattoes who particularly show plenty of skill and
adroitness in these branches, frequently get the better of them at pres-
ent. As regards trades demanding greater handiness and manual dexterity
the negroes develop far less talent : they work mostly as masons, carpen-
ters, smiths, and coopers, yet without being able to achieve — so far as
durability and neatness of work are concerned — what one might reason-
ably demand in view of their enormous charges. The tailoring and siioe-
rnaking trades are generally found in the hands of the mulattoes and the
French, who have drawn here from their settlements in the Islands. The
journeyman tailor also in Guiana can always be picked out amongst
thousands by his clothes: he is likewise the coxcomb, the faultless fop.

'120. In connection with sanitary police, it is indeed a wicked shame
thalt everybody may trade in physic as he pleases, the result of which is
that the saddest accidents unfortunately often take place. Such an one
happened a few days after our arrival when a woman asked for quinine
for her sick children and received strychnine : the little ones naturally
died under the most ghastly sufferings.

121. The Governor and Government Executive manage the civic ad-
ministration on the lines followed at the time when the Colony was taken
over on the part of Great Britain. The highest Executive or Colonial
Parliament consists of the Governor, the Chief Justice, the Solicitor
General, the Royal Tax-gatherer, the Government State-Secretary and
an equal numl>er of unpaid individuals who are chosen from among the
Cotonists by the College of Electors.

(m)The College of Electors is composed of seven members appoint-
ed from among the inhabitants for life : the Government Secretary keeps
the votes sent him, and the sealed canister in which they are contained
may only be opened in the presence of the Governor and of at least two
other members of the Government, Formerly the owners of 25 slaves
could only be voters: at the present time any one who pays £5 in cus-
toms duty has the right to vote.

123. When a. vacancy occurs, the College of Electors names two can-
didates from whom the Government appoints one as the member and
publishes his name in the Gazette. The unpaid or Colonial members <i
the Leoislature serve three years and retire in rotation. One or moi
annually give up their seats, but can be re-elected. The Governor, as

36 COURTS OF APPEAL.

President of the Administration, has a casting vote, every remaining
member, one vote. Independently of this right of vote, the Governor, at
every meeting, can exercise absolute veto over statutes and ordinances,
though the same may have been passed by a majority of votes, and no
ordinance has the force of law before it is ratified by him. The Queen
can confirm or disallow every statute.

124. The College of Financial Eepresentatives which represents the
people with regard to Finance, consists of six members who, like those of
the Electors, are appointed from among the inhabitants for two years.

125 The Government decides in all money arrangements : as soon as
the Budget is sketched for the current year, the nature of the taxes and
other duties discussed and passed by a majority of votes, the estimates are
handed over to the Financial Representatives who, in conjunction with
the Government, still submit certain particular points to examination.
During this discussion every person, member of the Government or
Financial Representative, has an equal vote. As soon as the proposed
Ways and Means are approved and passed, they have the force of law.

12G. The Supreme Civil Court of Justice in British Guiana consists
of a Chief Justice, two Judges, a Secretary to the Chief Justice, a Reg-
istrar and a Book-keeper bound-by-oath. All civil complaints and cases
of debt are in the first instance brought by the so-called Chancellery be-
fore one of the judges who reports his opinion to the assembled tribunal
which then confirms or disallows this judicial decision. If the plaint
concerns a matter of a value more than £500, an appeal from the decision
of the Supreme Court is permissible to the Privy Council.

127. The Dutch Statutes, especially the laws, orders and regulations
of the States-General must be taken by the 'Judges as basis for their
decisions.

128. The Supreme Criminal Court of Justice consists of the three
Judges of the Civil Court and three Assessors whose qualification is ac-
curately defined. The names of all who are to be appointed assessors
are placed by the Secretary of the Court in a box, and chosen by ballot :
they can however be rejected by the accused. The assessors have equal
powers with the judges and these six decide, by a majority of votes, on
the guilt or innocence of the accused. The Chief Justice has the cast-
ing vote. Sentence must be passed in open Court, and the verdict of each
judge and assessor as to guilty or not guilty recorded.

129. The lower Criminal Court in Georgetown is under the control
of the Chief Sheriff of British Guiana ; in Essequibo and Berbice, under
the Sheriffs of these districts. The Sheriff, as President, and three Mag-
istrates constitute a lower criminal court which has the power of deal-
ing with smaller thefts and offences. In certain cases the Sheriff decides
alone. Legally speaking, court has to be held three times a month in each
district.

180. As a result of the Slave Acts, to settle disputes between masters
and servants, definite tribunals were set up under Special Magistrates
appointed by the English Government, and are still retained. There are
thirteen of these Magistrates and a travelling Officer, all of them backed
by a number of constables to uphold them in carrying out the adminis-
tration of justice.

DRINKING WATER SUPPLIES. 37

131. The arrangements for regulating intercourse between the In-
dian population and the Colony, for protecting the Indians, and advanc-
ing their welfare, were formerly entrusted to six Protectors, six Sta-
tion commanders, and three Assessors. In place of the latter, three
Superintendents and six Post-holders nowadays control the rivers and
creeks. The present order of things is but of little advantage to the
aborigines, and assumes a constabulary character rather than fulfilling
the original object in view when the Protectors and Station-commanders
were appointed in 1794.°

132. The Police in British Guiana consist of an Inspector General
and a Secretary, two Sub-Inspectors for the Demerara and Essequibo
Districts, and one Sub-Inspector for the Berbice, 15 Sergeants and 105
Constables for Demerara and Essequibo, and 6 Sergeants and 32 Con-
stables for Berbice. In the Demerara and Essequibo are five prisons: viz.,
Georgetown, Mahaica, Wakenaam, Capoey, and the new Penal Settle-
ment at Mazaruni : in Berbice there are four, vis., in Xew Amsterdam, in
Sts. Clement and Catherine Parish, in St. Michael's, and the fourth in
St. Saviour's.^

133. Owing to the complete absence of fresh water every house has a
tank or cistern for catching rain, but owing to the long-continued
drought, it evaporates uncommonly quick. It was on this account that
the Government recognised the necessity for bringing fresh water from
distant lying rivers, because owing to the extensive lowlands being sub-
ject to tidal influences over a considerable area, the coastal streams are
as unpalatable as those of the briny ocean itself. To remedy this urgent
want and obtain fresh water, Major Staples* determined upon boring
an artesian well, in the sinking of which an extremely favourable oppor-
tunity presented itself of learning the particular stratigraphical condi-
tions down to a considerable depth, along this immense stretch of allu-
vial coastline.

134. Clear water though still strongly impregnated with iron first
showed itself at a depth of 110 feet. The following geognostic results were
obtained as far as this point. Twelve feet below the surface, the borer
struck a bed of half-charred Curida and RhizopJiom trees which at a
depth of 40 feet was followed by a bed of blue loam about 50 feet thick
that again overlay a second belt of timber about li feet deep. Immediate-
ly below this a 9 feet thick bed of compact grey- white clay was pierced,
which somewhat deeper down was mixed with plenty of sand and ap-
peared violet-coloured, and then followed a yellow-tinted one.

135. This favourable result induced several farmers, particularly
on the West Coast, where they had suffered most from water famine on
account of continued drought, to repeat the attempt on their own pro-
perties. To show how dependent the live stock on the coa^t is upon weath-

0 The present law for the better protection of the Aboriginal Indians (Ord. 28 of I'.Mll)
was based on the experience gained by the Translator in framing the Queensland and West
Australian statutes. (Ed.) .

t See " Geographisch— statistische Beschreibung von Britisch Guiana etc. By K. H.

^"rhefe is authority for the correct spelling of this name either as Staple or Staples. For
the benefit of his Teutonic readers, Schomburgk writes it Stapel : in the course of the text
it will be noticed that certain other patronymics have been slightly altered for similar reasons.
(J.R.)

ARTESIA.N WATER H)R CONVALESCENTS.

er conditions, the fact may be instanced that upon one farm alone, 500
out of 1,300 head of cattle perished during the long drought of 1831.

130. At the present time 17 artesian wells have been sunk in George
town, partly by private enterprise and partly by Government. These
give a daily supply of 90,000 gallons of water which has a temperature
of 84° Fahr. and is about 5° higher than that of the river-water of a
morning.0

TEMPERATURE OF THE ARTESIAN WELL AT PLN. MON REPOS ON
THE EAST COAST OF GEORGETOWN.

1844

Time

Tempnrature
of the air.

Temperature
of the water
of Artesian
Well.

Wet Bulb
Thermometer.

Fahrenheit
Thermometer.

Fahrenheit
Thei mo meter

9 a.m.

84-2

84.2

78-

Wind E. by N.

7th
March

12 uoou

89-

84.5

82-5

Sky partly clouded

3 p.m.

86-0

84-5

79.5

Wind E. b^N.
Sky partly clouded

137. Although the water, owing to the quantity of iron it contains,
is not adapted for drinking purposes it can be nevertheless utilised for
all kitchen requirements — except for tea, which cannot be drunk if made
with it after a short exposure to the air — and all other purposes in gen-
eral : cattle swill it indeed more freely than any other water. According
to the analyses that have been carried out with absolutely correspond-
ing results it contains a quantity of iron dissolved in carbonic acid, and
a small amount of magnesia,

138. During 1835, a year so notorious for the spread of yellow fever,
the convalescents at the garrison, under Dr- Bone's orders, had to drink
this water of a morning, with marked results.

139. As the water streams out of the bore it is still quite clear, but
on escape of the gas, the released iron forms on its surface a pellicle
which then becomes deposited at the bottom : on nitration now, it retains
its pure colour. If the water be filtered before complete escape of the
gas, the process is continued later, the sediment forming -in the kitchen
and other wares.

140. A peculiar phenomenon in some of the wells appears to be this
that the height of the flow strictly depends on the ebb and flow. In some
bores the difference during the interval is not less than 18 inches, and
when spring tides set in, even 2 to 3 feet. Although many explanations
have been attempted, no one has yet fully solved the problem, although
there can be no doubt that the increased pressure at flood tide and per-

*01* J?™ attnr °f d;inlPnS wate,r, snWly\ too< we seem to have retrogressed : we cauno
boast ot %,000 gallons of artesian well water daily for the supply of the town. (F.G.B)

UELIGIOUS LIFE. <$

haps the varying stratigraphical arrangement of particular beds may be
paramount causes.

14L The greatest depth to which the bores have been sunk hitherto
is 200 feet, without the base of the alluvial strata being pierced. The
varied stratigraphical relations also differ from one another according
to locality, and only correspond in that, with all of them, the huge layers
of rotten wood, even at a depth of 175 feet are always to be found.

142. Let us now glance at the outward form of Religious Life, and
the means adopted for its advancement- The only church which the Eng-
lish met with on their occupation in 1803 was that on Fort Island, where
the service was subsequently supplied by the army chaplain
of the English troops and a preacher from the Dutch
Reformed Church.. By 1810 a new edifice was dedicated in
Demerara, the capital of the Colony, to be followed in 1819,
1820 and 1825 by three others in Demerara and New Amsterdam, when
at the same time the Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice Districts were
split into parishes. Up to that period the whole of Guiana did not pos-
sess more than three clergy. Public Schools, besides the Saffon Institutes,
were quite foreign until, in the interval between 1824 and 1831 the Colony
redressed the grievance, and expended £26,000 out of her own resources for
the purpose : as a matter of fact, in 1832 the sum for the support and main-
tenance of Religious Institutions, including the erection of new schools,
alone totalled £14,337 exclusive of the amounts spent on the like objects
before and after. As a result of these united efforts the Established
Church by 1836 had seven rectors and one curate : the Dutch Reformed
Church two preachers, the Church of Scotland five, and the Roman
Catholics two priests. Besides these clergy the various church commun-
ities had another twelve eateehists and teachers whose total salaries ran
into £10.000. It was only in 1838 that the Colony was raised to an Arch-
diaconate, in the Diocese of Barbados, and the number of Established
Church clergy increased to 18 with 28 teachers and several mistresses,
as well as 10 Colonial curates and catechists: in this same year the
number of churches, chapels, etc. exclusive of eight private schools al-
ready aggregated 47. In 1842 the members of Committee accepted Dr.
Austin as their Bishop in the Archdiaconate, the Roman Catholics hav-
ing been organized already under Vicar-Apostolic Clancy, Bishop of
Oriense in Partibus with, at present, five priests and several school-
teachers. At the same time Georgetown was dignified a City.

143. To these Ecclesiastical Institutions must still l)e added the
brisk activities of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society with its
eight chapels, the London Missionary Society, the Baptists, and others
whose labours amongst the free negroes since 1838 have been crowned
with the greatest success.

144- As my brother had become acquainted on his previous visit with
the nicest families in the city, the inner social life of the Colonists was
disclosed earlier and easier than might otherwise have proved to be the
case with me. But what I had left behind in the old world I found again
in the new — in many respects even more crude, indeed in certain cases,
essentially more revolting. The Europeans constitute here, as in all
other Colonies, the only aristocracy, and one would almost believe it
impossible that a people, to whose high-minded principles the elevation,

40 SOCIAL AMENITIES.

of their hitherto degraded fellow men to the standpoint of a free folk
was indeed due, should be ruled by such one-sided and narrow preju-
dices^^^

(U5) In the Governor, Sir Henry Light, I found an extremely love-
able and estimable man whose white hair only too plainly showed that
many a year had already crossed his path. His wife and family were
still living- in England, owing to his having taken up the appointment
only a short while before. Besides his official position he had at the
same time to assume another locally-political one, because in George-
town the upper classes are divided into two contending camps, on ac-
count of which their mutual social intercourse is as impossible as in
our smaller German towns. The Governor must always lead the party
formed of the officials and certain of the wealthier estate owners, while
the planters dissatisfied with the administration, merchants etc. form
the recruits for the other: "The Brigade'' is the term generally applied
to the former.

110. The unlimited hospitality of the West Indies, already a bye-
word, continues to be so in Georgetown where one iinds it particularly
in families who pin their faith on plain honest domesticity to which
they must ever remain true so long as Fortune does not shower her
favours on them as bountifully as she has in the case of others amongst
whom the most spendthrift and ostentatious luxury has indeed become
the rule. The result to-day is that almost the whole of the sorcalled Eng-
lish society retains an extraordinarily large amount of ceremonial stiff-
ness and, in its sporadic seclusion, generally something in the way of
unnaturaluess and affectation.

147. After the novelty had worn off, the soirees, dinners, lun-
cheons etc. began to pall on me, though it was with all the more inward
satisfaction that I accepted invitations from the Dutch families, for
every visit I paid them made me think I was once more back
in niy beloved Home. I found amongst them almost everywhere the
same honest simplicity, cordiality, and intimacy peculiar to our own
-social circles. The German feels at home with these Dutch
families, the cold dividing barriers drawn by etiquette be-
tween the sexes in most English families having taken no
root in the Dutch ones : once introduced into the latter,
the stranger is forthwith regarded as a member of the family, and
unrestricted intercourse reigns between him and all who belong- to the
smaller or larger coterie.

148. Among the Germans settled here, who all came to pay a visit
soon after our arrival, was Mr. Bach, an Oldenburger, from the little
toAvn of Jever, the owner of an important coffee-plantation on the Deni-
erara: he won my heart at sight, just as I subsequently learned to es-
teem him still more on discovering him to be, not alone the only, but
also an excellent, botanist. My brother had already told me on the
voyage across that one of the most excellent collections of orchids was to
be seen in his grounds. Unfortunately a severe sickness with which I
was attacked prevented me accepting his invitation to stay with him,

• some time to come. Among my other countrymen, mostly mechanics.

> had formed a home here was a certain Konig who, with the impull

siveness of a German bred and torn, had anglicized himself and chang-

ARISTOCRATIC HABITS. 41

i«d his name to King: from many hints later let fall it was easy to be
seen that he must have had a very adventurous past. It seemed that he
had served in the Hussar Guards at Potsdam and became non-commis-
sioned officer, but, having got into some scrape or other, had consider-
ed it wiser to get away clandestinely and come out to the West Indies
where finally, in Demerara, he made an ample living by stuffing birds
and mammals: he sold these to the ships' captains and Garrison oll'i-
cers before their return to Europe dearer than what they could have
bought them for in England. His acquaintanceship certainly /lid not con-
tribute to exactly the most pleasant of the recollections which I brought
back with me to Europe.

14:9. Before entering into any further details of my life in George-
town, let us take a peep into the internal arrangements of the houses of
the aristocracy. Like that of their lives their whole get-up exceeds the
ordinary bounds of good old English comfort. The chief requirement
of a comfortable residence naturally consists in giving ventilation as
much scope as possible and assisting it still more in opening all doors
and windows : but each window is here supplied with green jalousie;-:
which are let down when the glass windows are opened, ansd so that the-
lights should burn evenly of an evening, large tastefully cut glass globes
are placed over them. On the first floor, the more or less roomy dining-
hall generally occupies the middle of the building: next to it are two
side rooms. Behind these apartments runs a gallery, on which are to
be seen both the steps leading to the next floor as well as a pantry, a
small room for keeping the table linen and service as well as the food
removed from. the table. The kitchens are never in the main building
but generally in outhouses: there are no vaults and underground cel-
lars, and likewise no basements. The upper floors are arranged as on
the lowest one. Stone houses are generally discounted, because during
the rainy season they are usually reckoned damp and unhealthy. Shin-
gle roofs are even preferred to those with tiles, because they supply a
much better and healthier water to the cisterns than the latter. The
most glorious wooden mosaic covers the walls and flooring of the rooms
but unfortunately this is now being greatly supplanted by carpets com-
ing into fashion : to keep this wainscoting and flooring continually clean,
both are rubbed weekly with lemon-juice or shaddock (Pompclnusis)
which not only fulfils its purpose, but considerably cools the air and
spreads an extremely pleasant perfume throughout the building.

150. The beds of the sleeping-rooms consist generally of mattress-
es with a light feather pillow : the great four-poster is surrounded with
a thin gauze to keep off the absolutely unbearable mosquitoes at each
season. Every adult member of the family has his own bedroom.

151. Five p.m. strikes and everybody with any pretensions at all to
culture, position, or outward superiority, hurries off to the Promenade,
the Spanish Alameda, the Italian Corso, the one public place where the
whole aristocracy is seen united, though divided by political and dom-
estic differences : he who goes on foot would expose evidence of his own
poverty, and would accordingly prove 'impossible" in those circles.
As a rule, walking is avoided here more than anywhere else and any
one enjoying but a fair amount of means keeps his own trap which is
very generally a light two-wheeled vehicle called a gig, or at most a

42 KIOT OF FOLIAGE.

phaeton. Gigs bring officials to their offices, merchants to their ware-
houses, physicians to their pa/tients, the world both pretty and ugly to
the promenade, to "The King ;" — then it is that the younger and wealthier
ladies mounted on their palfreys and surrounded by equestrian knights
and knaves, accompany their mother sitting in her gig or phaeton. The
King, at the same time the public highway, is formed of an avenue of
beautiful cabbage-palms (Orcodox-a oleracea) which stretches for an
hour from the western end of the city along the River.*

152. I know of no tree that is better suited to such a purpose be-
cause it diffuses a charm that has in fact something really fairy-like
about it. The peculiar rustling of the fronds arising from the breeay
atmosphere, the sudden opening of its large flower-bunch, after burst-
ing its capsule with a fairly distinct report and, during its erotic ecs-
tasy, scattering a regular rain of pollen through the air which it tills
with delightful perfume, — everything in short combines to make a
promenade along such an avenue one of the most enjoyable of pleas-
ures. On the western front of this avenue, and shaded by it, there
stretch certain of the planters' residences as well as their boiler-houses
and quarters for the staff: the former are enclosed in the most delight-
ful gardens, and divided from the lands of their neighbours by glorious
hedges of Poinciana piilcherrima Linn., Hibiscus rosa sinrnsis Linn.,
Jaftminuw fjrandiflorum or Gardenia, florida Linn., Clerodendroti
inermc Wall. etc.

153. What are all our pretty rose-bushes compared with this fresh
and brilliant mixture of red, yellow, white, and blue? What is the
Northern floral fragrance by the side of this perfect perfume? If wr'3
turn our gaze from the outer circuits to the inner, the house itself is
found to be regularly enveloped with trees of the glorious Jacaranda
rhomUfolia Meyer, and ,/. proccra Spr., Cassia fistula Linn., with its
long dependent pods, Cassia niultijuya Rich., Erythrina Corallodcndron
and E. spcciosa Amir., while the golden fruits are to be seen glowing in
the dark green foliage of the Orange-trees, and the* beautiful Acsclty-
jiorncnc coccinca and A. yrandiflora Linn., with their large butterfly
buds, illumining the fairy-like blossoms of Ixora coccinea Linn, in be-
tween the lovely hedges.

154. On its eastern front the Avenue is directly bordered by the
dwellings of the negroes working on the estates: these are intersected
by green grass flats where an equally beautiful naturally grown flora
comes into prominence. The rich wealth of flower of Asclcpias curas-
savica Linn., Orotularia ylalra Willd., Ruellia tubcrosa Linn., Leon-
otis nepetaefolia R. Br., Stbchytarpheta jamaicensis Vahl. and Tiari-
dium indiciim Leh. vie with the enlivening groups of Lantana Camara
Linn., Cassia alata and C. occidental-is Linn., Mimosa, and Cordia until
one's view is lost in the sugar-, plantain-, and coffee-fields and in thj
giant bushes of bambu now and again rising behind the houses, when it
finally becomes limited by the dark fringes of the virgin forest. The
water trenches running along the 'Avenue are covered with the beautiful

n3i? JLT1 ^ Jhe FT1!* HfTt011 Palm Avenue : the Bing-the circular area where the
carriages, etc. turned -of which no traces remain, was at the entrance of Agricola Village.-

CULTURE IN GEORGETOWN. 4*3

Eivhhornia azurea Kunth., and Limnocharis Humboldtii Kich. It is
only in this changing and vivid contrast that the landscape succeeds in
obtaining that infinitely delightful charm which the Imagination con-
ceives approximately enough under an atmosphere of ice and snow, but
which can only germinate into infinitely sublime Reality in the Tropics.

155. The lovely avenue soon fills with mysterious rustle, with floral
fragrance, — the sun hurries on towards the horizon and sheds its gold-
en rays once more upon the fashionably got-up dandies speeding along
on their proud steeds, or upon ladies dressed in the latest London styles
in elegant gigs, bright phaetons or on sprightly mounts. One drives
or rides a few times up and down, returns home to dine as the sun sets.
:ind then goes to bed ad lib.

156. Among the numerous members of the fair sex I would have
awarded the prize for beauty to Miss Eoss and to Miss Dalton, had not
the whole of Georgetown already done so. But however many the lovely
female forms and attractive features, the faded yellowish tint which
one generally finds shared equally between the men and women from the
lowest to the highest, — although the latter never expose themselves to
the rays of the morning or inidi -day sun — did not make a. very pleasant
impression on mie. The most blooming European complexion, the indi-
cation of a cold climate, disappears without a trace after a three or four
months' stay: and with it there also goes that buoyancy, that over-bub-
bling Love of Life, which in Germany is so often the flower-scattering
companion of Beauty.

157. Iii the families of the upper classes I generally found a high
degree of culture, often a combination of the purest womanliness with
the richest intellectual gifts: the men, at least the senior portion of
them, have mostly retained the characteristic trait of the race to which
they or theirs forbears belonged : the younger generation, it is true, almost
always shows precocity and extraordinary intellectual talent, but ex-
actly resembles the fruitful tropical soil which, unless carefully tended
by the owner's hand, is soon overgrown with weed.

158. The ladies of the higher classes usually spend their time in
reading, and now and again, though only to break the tiresome mon-
otony, in light feminine tasks. The kitchen only knows the lady of the
house and her daughters by name, and the remaining cares of a house-
wife are just as much unknown to the former as to the latter. Pleasure,
Pleasure, that is the everlasting slogan, the sphere, the summit and
shining light of the fashionable world, just as it is that of the poorest
negro. On two occasions within a, short interval I was afforded the de-
lightful opportunity of gazing on, and wondering at the absolutely gen-
teel and lovely world of Georgetown gathered within a limited" area.
The first was at the Races, the second at a private Ball got up by the
Croesus of the capital. The ball commences at 9 o'clock, and the gentle-
men must appear in black clothes.

159. I almost doubt whether Lucullus could have had his table ar-
ranged with better regulated refinement. Here were the rarest gift*? of
Nature from all parts of the world, united in the smallest of spaces:
from the Cape to my native Rhine the grape had contributed a supply

44 NAMING OF

which had been previously cooled in big ice-tubs : the other refreshments,
dishes etc. — it is no use saying anything further. Like everywhere
else the prize for beauty amongst this brilliant assemblage was indis-
putably taken by three Creole ladies, and 1 had the good fortune to>
dance with two of these earthly goddesses. As already mentioned all
ladies are heartily fond of dancing, but they are correspondingly bad
dancers. The ball was over at 4 o'clock in the morning.

160. It is unnecessary to state that a ball, given in such a relaxing
climate, in spite of quadrilles and country-dances only being indulged
in, cannot be one of the so-called pleasures for a German : but the preity
and ugly Creoles think otherwise. With white trousers and white jacket,
a silk handkerchief negligently slung round his neck, at 11 o'clock in
the morning, the time for a morning call, the dandy, the man of the
world, the gentleman of bon ton, hurries to his swagger lady-friend
just as the negro, — one might almost say the European ape, — does in his
own sphere of life, and enquires after her health, listens to her heart's
desires for the day, or possibly, as one more favoured, takes lunch with
her on cold meat, fruits and cakes. Lunch is an interpolated repast
between the real breakfast and the chief meal which is only served in
the evening : at the latter and at night, everybody must appear in dress
coat and black trousers.

101. In European families, English is of course the general language
of conversation : not so among the coloured people and negroes, who talk
a mixture, one might almost say, a real "pidgin" (Kauderwalsch) de-
rived from almost all the idioms of Europe and Africa, the indigenous
*so-called "Creole-Dutch": the Dutch language which was brought by
the first owners of the Colony constitutes its basis. In the course of the
constant changes of ownership, the next-following temporary posses-
sors on each occasion left behind certain traces of their language
with the result that, in the course of time, among the coloured people
and negroes, many a common expression is seen to be derived from
the Dutch, French, English and African occupation, and has now also
spread amongst the indigenous coastal tribes.

102. Just like their speech, the coloured population also consists of
the most different racial relationships, amongst which one particular
degree, in spite of its general name, still has a special designation. By
"Creoles" one understands all those who have been born in British
Guiana from immigrants, whether both their parents are Europeans,
Africans, East Indians, or their mother the one, and father the other :
all children born in the Colony are Creole. This definition extends even
up to domestic animals, according to which we get Creole horses, Creole
cows, Creole pigs, Creole sheep etc.

103. A second general term "Coloured people'* comprises all the differ-
ent gradations arising from the mixture of Europeans with African
and Indian women. The race resulting f^om the mixture of Europeans
with negro women is called "Mulatto."

164. Mixtures of Indians and Negroes are very rare, the former gen-
erally regarding the latter with supreme contempt, even hating them
• — - — — •

* This is still in restricted use in the Essequebo, at least, and is known as " Takkey,
Takkey." (A. R. F W.)

RACE DESCRIPTIONS. 45

like hereditary eneiuies.t This is expressed in the most glaring manner
whenever they meet. The appearance of such hybrids differs striking-
ly from that of the remaining ones. All whom I have had the opportun-
ity of seeing were specially marked by slim vigorous stature and mus-
cular strength. Their colour is a dark copper or coffee-brown and, as
regards their facial features, incline much more to the Ethiopian than
to the American race. Though the cheek-bones still continue to be
strongly prominent, it is nevertheless not so striking as it is among the
Indians, where it appears to a much greater degree. The nose is
broad, it is true, but not turned up: even so, the lips are still always
thick, but not puffy. The most striking} thing about them is without doubt
the extraordinary hair which as it were does noft seem to know in what di
rection to incline, whether towards the curly wool of Africa or the
smooth hair of America, and so stands on end half -curly. A lighter
complexion and smooth hair shows at once the mixed descent of Indian
and European.

105. The race produced from the mixture of a European and mul-
atto woman undoubtedly constitutes one of the most beautiful stamps
of human being for which in remaining portions of the New World, par-
ticularly in North America, are reserved the special terms Creole, mes-
tique, and kastize, and in the Spanish possessions, quadroons. While
the males of this mixed race appear to advantage amongst all other
men, the female sex finds its perfection in Guiana. Their full truly
plastic figure is still further improved by natural grace, by real elas-
ticity and sprightliness of movement, by the delicately formed hands
and arms, and pretty feet, while the dark brown sparkling eyes, the
swarthy glowing complexion, the beautiful ivory-white teeth, and the
luxuriant curly black hair lends to the face a charm which is peculiar
even to itself alone.

166: The different gradations in the colouring of the mixed breed
can be fairly accurately represented in quite a simple manner with a
glass of port wine and a glass of water, when one pours the half of each
into a third empty glass. This mixture represents the mulatto colour.
If one fills with this mixture another glass half-way, and then again
pours into it an equal portion of clean water, one has the next genera-
tion. After repeating the experiment ten times, every mixture of port-
wine colour has entirely disappeared and one has accurately the ten
shades of colour from black to white until again pure white.

1G7. In spite of the fact that in the last mentioned mixed breed
('European and Mulatto) the physical gifts mostly keep pace with the
intellectual ones, these people nevertheless up to the present belong to
the despised class of East Indian pariahs, for whom every entrance
into the circles of the pure-blood aristocracy still remains closed.

168. This brutal situation is the cancer that continues to make every
social unification impossible, and not alone destroy the social life, but
;n connection witti the political, must lead within the not very distant
future, to a state of affairs that threatens to be all the more dangerous

t What with the opening-uplof the -Colony, the gold-mining and balata industries, this \
very far from being the case now. (Ed.)

46 PERNICIOUS SOCIAL BARRIERS.

for the motherland in proportion as this class happens to be the more
numerous, just as it is, at the same time, and taken as a whole, the
better educated and the more intellectually gifted.

169. The bonds of married life are tied more loosely here than they
can possibly be in any other Colony. The least wealthy, yet to be sure
rich, planters, the merchants, even Government officers, inspectors, es-
tates' managers, and their servants are married, 'but usually live in con-
cubinage with coloured people, negro or Indian women. Many chil-
dren born of such unions receive their education in England, yea, even
in South Germany. Endowed with the most ample physical and Intel*
lectual gifts, sou and daughter return home, to their native soil where,
upon their first footfall they find themselves condemned, like Pariah
and Helot, back to the existence which English national Pride and
Slavery, that dark spot in the history of mankind, have devised for them.
They say good-bye to Europe but cannot take farewell of all the claims
to such a life as that to which they are entitled by their refinement and
wealth, because the father at his death frequently bequeaths them all his
property. Life in all its bitterness spurns them with frigid callousness,
contempt dodges their every step, and scofri is meted out to those who
strive to force their way through these cold and inhuman barriers. Deep
hatred fills the impassionate heart with disdain for the ideals which
European education taught them on the other side of the ocean, and the
breast burning for satisfaction soon tears away and casts aside the veil
of womanliness. Finery, the grasp at temporary pleasure, and the taste
for illicit love are in very great measure the sad consequences of this
neglect. If in isolated cases the European disregards these prejudices
and still marries a coloured woman upon whose reputation even the
most stinging envy can find no stain, the blot of birth indelibly remains:
all the aristocratic circles are open to the husband, but to the wife they
are impenetrably closed. Thus in the hearts of the coloured people there
is developed that passionate hatred which hovers over the Colony like
an Avenging 'Angel more threatening than the one the negroes cherish :
for, with the latter the sources are much more superficial.

170. Still more striking however is the reciprocal action which this
complete segregation of white society from that of the coloured exer-
cises again upon the different gradations of the latter, and in this social
relationship of the Present may perhaps lie the only guarantee that the
motherland will retain her hold on the Colony in the Future. The
coloured man regards the mulatto and Creole negro with the same con-
tempt that the latter looks upon the non-creole negro who comes here as
an emigrant or freed slave, although he shares his colour absolutely. Tu
their mouths the word "nijrger1' is the commonest term of abuse, and
woe betide him who offends his falsely-understood feeling of freedom and
illimitable arrogance. "I am a free man, have the same rights as you,
and know how to defend them/' are words to which the most harmless
remark, or an apparent disregard for their boundless oft-ridiculous
self-confidence gives rise. The contempt shown the negroes by the mul-
attoes is mutual and often enough have I heard songs, wherein the
negroes are so fond of expressing their feelings of hatred or of love,
amongst which the following, of which I am only mentioning its gen-

THE LOVE OP DANCING 47

eral tenor, takes chief place: — "The whites have a native country; the
blacks also have one, but the mulatto searches for one in vain, he seeks
and finds none. Poor is the man, contemptible is the man who has no
native country : the mulatto has none."

171. Their mental and physical indolence, in short their collective
intellectual powers that stand on a very low level, allow of the negroes
being endowed with but a few good qualities, among which their un-
limited gratitude shines forth as the most brilliant. Impelled by it,
they readily and willingly offer their lives for those to whom they be-
lieve they are indebted, though in contrast with this beautiful and chief
characteristic, the unbounded thirst for revenge which only too often
seeks and finds satisfaction in the most awful sufferings of their vic-
tims, is very striking. Not only in connection with his physique but
also in regard to disposition a marked difference is shown between the
Creole negro and the one brought out straight from Africa: the latter is
reserved and mischievous, the former ever cheerful, light-hearted and
ready for a joke. Physical listlessness and laziness, especially among
the women, have already had to make way for a certain elasticity and
mobility that lends a particular charm to the black figure when one sees
her, with her striking white pearly teeth and sparkling eyes, hurrying
through the streets in a white muslin costume. Their figures become
ridiculous however when in their apish efforts to clothe themselves in
the most absurd European fashions with glaring colours, they make real
caricatures of themselves: unfortunately this is the case with nine-
ten ths of them.

172. With the onset of evening, there sound from every quarter the
monotonous notes of drum and tambourine, instruments which passion-
ately excite the indolent muscles of the Africans and their descendants
who always dearly love a dance : they will keep it up until break of day.
I was often witness of their crude native dances wliich nevertheless are
only danced by immigrants and former slaves: the Creole negroes are
ashamed of them, and are only happy when indulging in country-dances,
quadrilles etc. The native dance as a rule takes place in the open.
Only let the ponderous fist strike the drum and holiday-makers and
working people will swarm from all sides to the seductive call of the in-
strument,— if one may call a barrel or hollow tree-trunk covered with
cow, bullock, goat or sheep skin by the name of instrument — and a
crowd of hundreds is collected in no time. In measured beat and slow,
the ladies, draped in white muslin, and adorned with huge red-coral
chains, trip it with the men in circles advancing and retiring: the ex-
citement of the musicians, for in most cases the triangle or a violin is
yet added to the drum, becomes aroused, and proportionately with it
the action of the partners. The Mows of the drummer fall ever quicker
and harder on the skin which possibly only withstands the treatment
by virtue of its being so thick: the dangers are soon transported with
wild bacchanalian lust, when what with a series of disgusting jerks,
"winds" and contortions they resemble Furies rather than human be-
ings. But this is still too tame for the spectators, the gesticulations
and distortions are not sufficiently out-of-the-common. All of a sudden,

48 NEGKO DANCES.

three or four fresh performers, no longer able to resist their inner im-
pulses and devilish appetites, spring into the exhausted throng. The
music now takes on a swifter turn, the dance waxes more fast and fur-
ious, even more demoniacal, and the sybilline spirit that grips them,
likewise seizes all the onlookers who, with yelling voices and clapping
hands goad the waning strength of both partner and musician to fur-
ther exertion: finally this frenzy has to succumb to absolute lassitude
when, bathed in perspiration, foaming at the mouth and faint with ex-
haustion, the dancers sink to the ground and fresher people take their
places. However interesting in one respect these scenes might be, the
odour, so unpleasant to a European, indicative of a single negro at a
distance of even five paces nevertheless used to keep me at a respectful
distance : at a gathering such as this it amounts to a suffocating atmos-
phere wherein the whole of Olympus together with the heroes of tl^e
Past and Present are disporting themselves in the monotonous din of
a delirium of dance. Cicero foots it with Proserpine, Mercury with
Cleopatra, Nelson shakes hands with Neptune, Nero falls into the arms
of Napoleon, Hamlet jokes with Aurora, while Komulus and Remus,
Bluclier and Wellington haste with waddling goose-step to join the
happy throng, and Mercury shouts to Ombre, Whist, and Spadille, with
Venus and Helena telling them to hurry up. These extraordinary names
date from before emancipation when it was obligatory on the slave-
owners or estates' managers to give names to children born on the plan-
tation, and which were mostly inspired from some reminiscence of the
past, or from the particular business on hand when the news of a newly
born child happened to bo announced.

173. If one turns now to the over-done gaudily decorated ball-room
of the Creole negroes, where only quadrilles and country-dances are
fancied, the Paradise of Deities and Heroes is re-enacted save that the
Gods and Goddesses appear in other costumes. Silk covers their mortal
bodies. Minerva foots the light fantastic in crimson spencer and white
gown before Mars, who is perspiringly anxious about cutting the latest
French capers properly, while Diana, in a sky-blue dress and white
spencer, gazes in the eyes of love-lorn Narcissus : she is either brushing
away from off her brows the small dishevelled tufts of hair which, woven
from her short, curly wool and owing to its uncontrollable nature, stands
out from her head like horns, or toying with the huge ear-rings that
drag her long ears still longer, or perhaps passing enormous links of
her heavy gold chain ncsrlio-ently over her fingers; while her ill-shaped
feet are stuck in red or white satin shoes.

174. An example of the extent to which the taste for finery is really
carried among the Creole negroes was afforded us by Captain Rothwell
who showed us, on the trip out, a heavy gold chain and ear-rings pur-
chased bv him for £15 and £5 respectively to the order of an old immod-
erately fat negress who kept a huckster's fruit shop.

175. Though the insufferable stench from the company of Gods and
Goddesses had driven me out of their presence into the open air, the
overpowering perfume contributed by Rose, Jasmine, Orange, and Eau
de Cologne in the ballroom almost threatened to stifle me: in spite of

COCK-FIGHTING IN GEORGETOWN. 49

everything, Art had not been quite able to overcome Nature, which
gradually commenced to recover her disputed sovereignty.

176. The gentlemen are the faithfully reflected images of the ladies.
A black or blue frock-coat covers the faultless shoulders : a red, vellow,

7 */

or sky-blue vest worked in with gold — this is enclosed with a huge
watch-chain and heavy pendant, from which one would in most cases teil
the time in vain — covers the powerful chest: the white dancing pumps
neatly laced up to the knees : the silk stockings and red or yellow shoes
emphasize to advantage the slim build of the extremities. A Master
of the Ceremonies, with hat under his left arm, leads the dance and
tries to curb the all too lively "Irresistibles.'' One hardly knows which
to consider the more ridiculous, the costume, or the continual 'turning,
bowing and scraping of the man stuck inside it. Our German provin-
cial townsman knows how to offer Mr. Burgomaster his snuff-box real-
ly graciously enough: but compared with the elegance of the Creole
negro, that is only shade as compared with brilliant sunshine, while the
skipping around of the Teuton when he happens to reach the door at the
same time as Mr. Syndicate or Mr, Senator are only shavings in con-
trast with Hercules' club. Questions like "How is my lady Aurora to-
day," or "Why is my lady Daphne not here yet?" are to be heard re-
peated in thousandfold echoes.

177. Nevertheless, this polished exterior of an aped etiquette soon
crumbles again into its rightly recalled natural state by the inordinate
taste for champagne and other liquor : — boundless brutality replaces the
initial polish, and the powerful blows of the equally powerful fist quickly
put the whole pack of divinities to rout, This last stage is the ever re-
curring refrain with all gatherings of negroes, be they Creole or not.

178. The weekly evening socials of the Prince Regent Society, the
Victoria Society, and Fancy (Mask) Balls of the Creole negroes all wind
up with bleeding heads, torn dress-clothes, rent garments, and tattered
spencers, and the English merchant or officer whose company has been
requested with a perfumed card of invitation must haste to reach the
doors before the boiling passions exceed all limits.

179. Cock-fighting, that probably has been handed down from the
English, together with its associated betting and disorderliness is held by
the negroes in even higher estimation than dancing. The limitless licen-
tiousness finally forced the Governor to prohibit these exhibitions under
the severest penalties, but nevertheless without being able to suppress
them. Just as in Europe gambling has been driven from public resorts
into thieves' dens and behind secret doors, so cock-fighting has been forc-
ed .here into enclosed yards or spacious rooms, but as the pugnacious
fury of the birds becomes rapidly supplanted by that of the spectators
now thoroughly aroused, it requires no delicate sense of tracking on the
Dart of the police, as in Europe, for the offenders to be discovered : the
indiscriminate shouting, together with the hefty thumping blows of the
combatants indicate not only within the city, but also outside it in the
forest, on the Easter Tuesday, the places where the law is being broken.

180. Easter Tuesday from the remotest times was the special heyday
for cock-fights. Since its prohibition the yards and rooms have nowa-
days become too small. The location in the forest already fixed upon

50 AT THE RACES*

several weeks before, is secretly notified to the black population. Tuei-
day appears — the Police scatter themselves in the environs and soon re-
turn to Georgetown accompanied by negroes dripping with blood.

181. A good fighting-cock is the most treasured possession of a negro,
the object of his tenderest endearment; in fact, a well trained champion
that keeps itself hardy and bold, yields its owner biit little less than the
best race-horse. Indeed, the rage for betting has so greatly iiicreased
since the prohibition, that rings are immediately formed on the streets
as soon as a fight occurs among the scattered fowls, the favourable op-
portunity for giving vent to it being gladly seized. Should such a for-
tunate accident happen on a farm, and there are no other spectators to
wager with, the son bets against his father, the father against the mother,
and God help him who wants to stop the sport by unseasonable inter-
ference.

182. As to the upper classes, for those fond of betting, the Turf Club
Meetings were days to be looked forward to and enjoyed. It was then
that one could search in vain for a healthy negro throughout the whole
city: indeed, the very servants would immediately throw up their situa-
tions were the master or mistress to prevent them taking part.

183. The streets fill at daybreak, and dense crowds indicate where
bets are already being booked. Kigged out in the most beau-
tiful of the beautiful that his wardrobe comprises, in white
trousers, dazzling a long way off, a blue dress coat and
glittering vest, with a fuming cigar in one hand and a
faultless stick in the other, the negro, full of hope, hastens to the Course.
I shall never forget my first Georgetown Race-Meeting with an atten-
dance of at least 10 to 12,000 negroes, whom the whole of the police force
was unable to control.

184. The animals nominated for the races are kept in special trel-
lis-worked horse-boxes under the two equally large Grand-Stands for
the aristocracy and coloured people, where the track starts
and ends. Running the eye of an expert over his particular
favourite, the negro makes his choice and with victorious step
hastens to bet with the first person he meets. The signal for a start
is likewise the signal for a fight on the flat. Words to soothe them on
the part of the peace officers are words wasted in the wind: better re-
sults are obtained with the 18-inch long staves, weighted at one end by
lead, with which they whack in % time the healted heads of the de-
linquents, who are dragged by the feet out of the dense crowds, it being
out of the question for them to come along without resistance. The now
empty horse-boxes under the grandstands are occupied by the bleeding,
cursing, and unfortunate bookies vainly exerting themselves to get out,
and where, like Tantalus, they are prevented profiting by a winner or
loser. Truly I have never seen an angered tiger, lion, or raving baboon,
shaking and tearing at the bars of its cage more furiously than 'these
negroes boiling with rage at those of their particular stall until at last,
their exhausted rage finds gratification in the thrilling blows which, as
-n rely as B. follows A., take place amongst those finding themselves in
one and the same horse-box.

185. A newcomer, and as yet unacquainted with the character of the
negro, I at first felt pity for the poor devils at these procedures of the
police which really seemed to be more than tyrannical, since they were
being treated not as human beings but like refractory brutes. Still more
did my finer feelings revolt at seeing the sweet-scented frail and delicate-
ly-smiling English women and Creoles regard these terrible scenes of
ill-treatment with such indifference as if they were daily familiarised
with them : — which certainly is the case. But I was forced only too soon
to the absolute conviction that by such measures alone could the negro
be controlled, and that he would be able to live just as much without food
and drink as without whacking. One's compassion is lost on becoming
more intimate with his character and principles.

186. As our house was for the most part surrounded by negro quar-
ters and the building at the back was likewise occupied by them, Sunday
always proved a holiday for me, for from the gallery I was then able
to look down on my neighbours, whom on a week-day I would1 readily
keep three paces away from, and see them hurrying off to church in white
silk or muslin garments, as sweet-scented as rose or jasmine stocks,
though, for an hour beforehand they would be watching the weather with
their smouldering stumpy clay pipes in their mouths. This was the
funny side of our building : though its yard almost daily provided scenes
where the parents, not like human beings, let alone of the same flesh and
blood, punished their children in a way that precludes them being treat-
ed as men and women themselves. How often did the howl of woe, the
crying and whimpering of the youngster writhing under the blows of its
inhuman mother or pitiless father call me to the window : How often did
I draw back with closed eyes and stuffed ears on seeing one of the furies
tearing the clothes from off her boy or girl in heedless frenzy, seize it by
the hair, throw it on the floor, and then like an enraged beast stamp
upon the writhing and groaning child — or when, after tying hands and
feet she hung it up and, raving, foaming, and yelling, let out with a
three or four strand rope, not worrying where the blows fell, till blood
flowed from the wounds, mouth and nose. Still more brutal are the
fights and matrimonial disputes between man and wife, or between two
jealous female rivals. Teeth and nails are here the ultima ratio, and I
have seen fights taking place below my window where, on one occasion
the two contending devils had bitten into one another like raving bull-
dogs, and could only be parted by each one retaining in her bloody mouth
a piece of the other's flesh while, on another, the daughter had bitten
off her mother's forefinger, the latter reciprocating with a snap from off
her daughter's breast.

187. If the negro's bare appearance by itself alone fails to exert quite
the most favourable impression upon the newly-arrived European, it
becomes really horrible when afflicted with one of those innumerable
loathsome diseases to which he is far more subject than any other inhab-
itant of Guiana. Among these are specially "Yaws," Frambosia, and
"Barbados Leg," all of them varieties of Elephantiasis where the whole
body is covered completely with yellow ulcers that are considered just
as contagious as syphilitic sores, but reckoned incurable. Elephantiasis

52 INDIANS' RARE VISITS.

and its counterpart, where the negroes afflicted with it are nothing else
than wandering skeletons over which the skin hangs in immense folds,
are just as plentiful as other scabious diseases, and I shall never forget
the impression which the sight of the first case of Frambosia made on
me, with every hair already fallen off and hands and feet in complete
suppuration. The most awful thing about this disease is that though
those who are afflicted with it have no hope of cure, they can neverthe-
less linger on for years before being released from
their sufferings by Death. The disease commences with
the growth of a number of small swellings which first
of all develop between the muscles and the skin: these grad-
ually burst, pass into a state of suppuration and even attack the gullet
and nose which caves in at the very first. The most awful stench drives
everybody out of the sufferer's vicinity. Finally, the skin is loosened
entirely from the muscles and actually rots away, until the suppurating
process, spreading from the fingers and toes right over the body at last
puts an end to the patient's infinite misery.* So much for the negro
population of Guiana.

188. The natives are only very rarely to be seen in town, and when
they are, very surely belong to one or other of the Warrau, Akawai or
Waika, Arawak and Carib tribes: these collectively occupy the coastal
areas, and for that reason have held intercourse with the Europeans for
a long time past. Unfortunately, almost always as a result of it, the
whole shady side of civilisation, not its bright one, has passed over to
those Indians, although an immense gulf still continues to exist be-
tween the viciously inclined African and similarly disposed Indian, be-
tween a drunken negro and a drunken native.

189. The inhabitants of the real Interior never appear in the city and
only carry on trade through the mediation of the tribes just mentioned
who barter from them their birds, tamed mammals, hammocks, plaited
baskets, earthen-ware vessels, feather decorations, fruits, resins etc. in
exchange for European articles such as knives, scissors, hatchets, axes,
powder, spot-print, beads etc. : the former take these into the hinterland
and trade them to advantage for products of the local tribes. Unfortun-
ately these trading coastal-tribes have such a propensity for drink that
they often spend the greatest portion of the money earned in satisfy-
ing their greed for spirits although they only come and go like birds of
passage. When such parties of Indians are noticed in the city, the negroes
do not let them out of their sight but follow them like jackals or vul-
tures after a caravan in the desert, and as soon as the vast quantity of
Hqnor TmbilW! hpsn'ns to take effect, get hold of the remaining money or
"trade" already bought, either by fair means or foul.

100. Before Emancipation, when the Colony still particularly re-
quired the services of the Indians, the authorities kept a large house or
caravanserie for them in the west end of the town, where they could al-

c ? if V1 COUrf ' the °W, conceP*10" of " Elephantiasis," which included Yaws, " Bush
«! h M wf,now kn™ !1S Elephantiasis, and other manifestations of Filariasis, Leprosy
KM W £ 1 co"ditlons- The condition which is here so graphically described is prob-
ably that which we now know as Leprosy. (F.O.R.)

EXPLOITING THE NATIVES. 53

ways find a camp on their temporary visits. Now that their help is no
longer required these quarters have been allowed to go to ruin.

191. With a view to encouraging intercourse between the aboriginal
natives and Planters and with the Colony, to protect them from selfish
and self -interested employers, and to keep an eye on those who had shewn
themselves prepared for permanent settlement, in fact, the promotion of
their material and spiritual welfare, six Protectors and six Post-holders
were originally appointed. Of the latter, one always lived on the Pom-
croon, Essequibo, Demerara, Berbice, and Corentyn at stations estab-
lished there, where they at the same time had to watch strangers who
passed up and down the rivers. The Protectorship was an honorary of-
fice, to which fell the inspection of the Post-holders and was generally
filled by estates' owners or well* known merchants. They are at present
replaced by three paid Superintendents who have to travel through the
districts every quarter. In 1842 the Colonial Parliament determined
upon doing away with these appointments of Post-holders and Superin-
tendents and leaving the Indians unprotected to their fate, but with a
severe reproof from Lord Stanley, the then Colonial Minister, its action
was not approved.

192. Though this Department must have exerted a very beneficial
effect upon the indigenous populations in paving the way for their civ-
ilisation and material welfare had it been carried on with fidelity and
conscientiousness, this was unfortunately the case in only a few well-
known instances. With the small salary received from the Colonial Gov-
ernment the Post-holders, especially in earlier times and even up to now,
were guilty of many an oppression and swindle on the wards under their
charge : this entirely undermined the good object of the purpose in view,
and the Indians, on seeing themselves deceived and cheated by their pro-
tectors were alienated for ever from the civilisation that Avas already
scarcely won.

193. Owing to this treatment and exploitation of the harmless abor-
igines on a basis of the meanest selfishness, whereby they had to perform
the hardest woodcutting tasks on the timber grants, months at a time,
for a few worthless glass beads, labour of the most serviceable nature
has been lost to the Colony, the employers themselves frankly admitting
that an Indian, as a workman, is worth double a negro. The slightest
suspicion of deceit on the part of his employer sends the Indian back to
his wandering life in the forests, never to return. Even were the present-
day conditions and scarcity of labour to force the Planters or Timber-
grant owners to reward their honestly-rendered services like honest em-
ployers, it would be impossible to obliterate the distrust which in earlier
times has been inscribed in indissoluble letters on the memory of those
deceived : on the other hand, even the honourable employer is not sure
of his Indian labourer, because the latter only hires himself out when
the want of certain articles, that have become necessaries to the tribes
living in the neighbourhood of the city, forces him to work. Upon earn-
ing as much as will supply that want, nothing will hold him back from
his favourite hammock, or his beloved hunting and fishing grounds, un-

54 INDIANS DYIN& OUT.

til some fresh requirement drives him to town again. The Colony owes
the poor neglected Indian an old-time heavy debt, the present-day re-
payment of which is not to be expected. While it wanted him to suppress
the many insurrections of the slaves, it used to wheedle him and once a
year fix a certain day to give him a big spread and valuable presents,
whereat several thousands, wearing the most beautiful feather ornaments
would generally be gathered: all these means of recognition have been
abandoned . "They are now of no more use to us, and there is no need
to worry any more about them," is the stereotyped answer which the
astonished questioner receives. No one remembers that almost all
the negro revolts were suppressed through the help of the aborigines,
and that in the Coromantyn negro rebellion in 1793 and 1794 the Car-
ibs alone sent 800 young warriors to assist the overpowered Colonists.

194. During our almost four years' stay with these "Tribes without
Tears," all the signs we gathered point incontestably to the fact that
the Present is the closing scene for them in that great drama which
everywhere is, and will be, renewed where European culture gains and
has gained a footing.

195. The many European-introduced diseases that have become in
different ways indigenous amongst the tribes of the interior, particularly
small-pox, are helping on this closing scene to an increased degree. In
1794 the Caribs were still able to place 800 young fighters in the field :
according to the census of 1841 the whole coast tribe including Avomen
and children only amounts to 500. Nine-tenths of the Arawaks have dis-
appeared in the interval, and half of the Akawais and Warraus1 arc no
more.

196. After several days' stay in the city I was constrained to yisit
the more or less distant environs, to make myself at home and conver-
sant with the field of iny Labours. Of course my earliest excursions
could and only dared be of short duration, my brother and new acquaint-
ances having impressed upon me the most sacred duty of not exposing
myself too suddenly to the sun's rays which exert such a harmful in-
fluence on the newly-arriving European. My -trips were accordingly
limited to between six o'clock day-break and eight, when it was always
incumbent on me to hurry back to the protecting roof and avoid the
danger threatening.

197. On leaving the city proper, almost all the roads lead to the
same surrounding sugar, plantain, and abandoned cotton estates: upon
the latter, which at present form pasturage for cattle as already men-
tioned, one now and then finds an isolated cottoa-tree (Gossypium her-
baceum), dotted over with its large yellow mallow-like flowers, that rises
like a sort of memorial of former extensive cultivation. What a beau-
tiful and fairy-like sight must these cotton-fields in blossom have pres-
ented in the olden days!

198. The whole cultivated portion of the Colony, but particularly
in the immediate neighbourhood of Georgetown, is an alluvial flat, ex-
posed to flooding during the spring-tides. A front dam extending along
the whole stretch of coast-line parallel with the sea or river on the inner
side of which run the public streets, protects the estates and has to be
kept in repair by the respective owners of estates bordering on it. To

FLORA OP THE ESTATES. 55

save the plantations from being flooded in the rainy season from the land
side, a similar dam is raised there. Trenches or canals divide the dif-
ferent properties one from another, with, in addition, a main-outlet canal,
12 feet broad and 6 feet deep surrounding every estate into which all the
smaller ones open. With the commencement of the ebb, the banked-up
waters within can be run off by means of large sluices into the main
canal, this being in communication with the so-called navigation trenches
that divide the estate into different fields, and along which the cut-down
sugar-cane is transported in large punts to the mill.

199. Originally every Colonist was allotted a frontage of 100 Dutch
roods and a depth of 750 roods, or 250 acres for cultivation. It was
only when this area was cultivated and cleared that he was allowed
an extension of his property and in return for a small sum another 250
acres could be granted him. Every Colonist was allowed to procure
land in this way until, on coming into collision with the next estate,
lie found an insurmountable obstacle to the further extension of his
property. The superficial area of individual estates varies mostly be-
tween 300 and 2,000 acres, although at present only a few can keep more
than from 100 to 500 acres under cultivation. The cultivated ground
usually consists of a rich stiff and clayey marshy soil of great depth
which is in many cases mixed with salty and vegetable matter. In this
soil, the sugar cane lasts for from 20 to 30 years, and indeed even up
to 50 years without requiring new transplanting. If only to give an
example of the extraordinary fertility of this soil, I would mention that
6000 Ibs. of sugar or 26,000 Ibs. of plantains are often harvested annual-
ly from one acre, though one finds such capacity for produce only quite
close to the coast, and on the banks of the rivers : amongst the latter,
only so far as the salt water reaches at flood-tide, which on an average
is mostly ten miles. Beyond this, are to be found barren sandy or yel-
low loam flats which are very generally covered with a three to four foot
deep light vegetable substance called Pegass. This soil is suitable only
for coffee planting.

200. The district comprising the estates, like that of the city, has a
flora of its own. The luxuriance of the gardens and open spaces, to the
wealth of which the East Indies, Africa and the West India Islands
have contributed, disappears here and the monotonous uniformity of
Rhizophora and Ficus is only occasionally interrupted by pleasant
avenues of Erythrina Coralldcndron Linn., Tamarindusl Indica Linn.,
Artocarpus incisa Linn., Per sea yrutissinia and Orange-trees. These
either lead to the individual estates' properties, or stretch along the dams
and canals dividing the different plantations from one another ; they are
hemmed in with a fthick undergrowth of Lantana in a number of varie-
ties, as well as with Cordia hirtsuta Willd., C. tfchomburgJcii Benth.,
Cassia alata, C. occidentalis Linn., 0. latifolia, Meyer, C. venenifera Rod.,
C. calliantha Meyer, Psidiuni and a number of Mimosa. The broad
grass and pasture flats are generally covered with Asclepias curassa-
viaca Linn., Crotalaria glabra Willd., Raellia tuberosa, Hibiscus bic-
ornis Meyer, H. spinifex Linn., H. brasiliensis Linn., Leoaotis nepetae-
folia, Tiaridium indicuni Leh., Stachytarpheta jamaicensis Vahl,
Solatium crythrocarpum Meyer, 8. mammosum Linn., 8. verbascifolium,

56 FA.UNA OF CITY ENVIRONS.

Chcnopodiunt, ambrosioidcs Linn., Phyllanthus hypericifolia and P.
Xiruri which are enlivened by a fauna peculiar to the city and its en-
virons. Next to the inquisitive little chap which immediately after laud-
ing attracted iny attention so forcibly with its "Qivest-ce-que-dit," I took
equal interest in the numerous carrion crows, Cathartes aura and C.
foctcns 111., which, as proteges of the law have become almost as tame
as domestic fowls, because anybody who either within the city or its
environs wants to sacrifice the bird to his love of sport, is mulcted in a
fine of 50 dollars. There canna/t however be any cleaner sanitary police
than these creatures: indolent and sullen they perch with relaxed wings
upon the fences, hedges, roofs, and trees until the tempting smell of a
carcase or other refuse allures them to the open drains and street gutters,
or onto the pastures beyond the city, to start their work of des-
truction on some dead beast which in a few hours they have already
changed into a cleanly prepared skeleton.

'201. Outside the city, just the same as inside, one hears repeated
from out of every tree the everlasting question "Qu'est-ce que-dit" of the
Tyranmis siilpharatu-s or T. flavus which, together with its relatives,
the T. crudelis Sw. and T. Lictor, constitute the main body of the feath-
ered army of occupation. T. flavus is the most unsubdued of the whole
family, the fear and terror of its smaller mates which it only too gladly
chases or robs of its young and eggs, just as it is at the same time the
most talkative and inquisitive; T. crudelis is already dull of tongue,
while all other species have forgotten how to ask the question. T. crudelis
and T. sulphuratus replace our swallows and wag-tails, and with shrill
note chase for part of the way every bird of prey that puts in an appear-
ance. The Tanayra tiayaca Linn, and T. olivascens, the blue and brown
"sacky" respectively of the Colonists, are just as plentiful as these
in the city, while as soon as one gets into the country the husky scream**
of the Crotophaga Ani Linn, are to be heard : these are the "old witches"
of the Colonists, that perch either in the shadows of the bushes or in
and among the cattle and let themselves be carried about on their backs,
like our starlings upon the sheep. The fact of their liking to stay
close to a dead beast to pick insects, maggots, and larvae has probably
given rise to the false impression that they live on carrion : the former
together with the fruits of P.ndiunt pyriferum and pods of Cayanus
indicus constitute their only food, for which reason they can be often
greeted near fields containing the latter. The peculiarity that several
females join together during the laying and breeding season to form a
common nest the size of which depends upon the number of associated
prospective mothers, wherein to lay and hatch their eggs in; common,
does not invariably present itself with Crotophaga Ani, because I invari-
ably found only from five to seven greenish white eggs in a nest : as I
subsequently discovered, Hie' peculiar^' only takes place with C. major.
Ihe thick bushes running along the trenches are enlivened with the dainty
Mmcicapa Ucolor Gm., or "Cotton-bird," so named from its building
its nest only from out of that material, and M. leucocephala Tern, or "Par-
son Bird" a term acquired from its black plumage and little white head;
the trenches themselves are dotted with the Parra 'jacana Linn., 'Ardea
scapular** 111., and A. nivea Lath., while the frequented and trodden

IDEAL LovE-BiuD. 57

carriage-roads and foot-ways have been chosen by the pretty red-
breasted Icterus guianensis Briss. and black /, sericeus. On neariug
the avenues of Erythrina, the charm of their lovely floral decoration is
increased yet tenfold by the large number of humming-birds, particularly
the Trochilus pectoralis Linn, which, like a swarm of bees, flitter round
the innumerable blossoms while the shrill cry of the little Psittacus
taipara Linn, isi to be heard coming from the red flower bunches : the lat-
ter birds, unlike the former, that are content with the nectar alone, ac-
tually at the same time pick away at the pistils, but never at the stam-
ens of these fragrant flowers. When one turns one's gaze from the blos-
soming Erythrina to the flowering tamarind, the gold-glistening
TrovMlus moschatus Lath, is seen hovering round it in similar fashion
while the loud chatter from out of its feathery leaves betrays the gar-
rulous companies of dull green Psittacus passerinus Linn, and P. gre-
gar'ms Spix. The Icterus icterocephalus Daud., /. xanthornus Baud.,
the Tanayra mayna L. Gm., T. Jacapa Gm., T. nlgerrima Gm., Euphone
i'iolacea. E. chlorotica and Cassicus niger Daud., fly with confusing
clamour over the rich plantation fields while the shy little Crcx musteUna
peeps cautiously out of the grass, anid as quick as thought draws back
immediately upon noticing anything suspicious. Crex melampyya and
Porphyrio martinica have chosen the plantain or sugar fields for hiding-
places.

202. German poets, unaware of the sympathy existing between a pair
of Psittacus passerinus, have chosen a pair of doves as Love's idyllic
symbol : — but how far the refinement of the one surpasses that of the
other! In the case of Psittacus, absolute harmony reigns between the
reciprocal Willing and Doing. When the one eats, so does the other:
if one takes a bath, the other accompanies it : should the male start
shrieking, the female immediately joins in : when the one is sick, the other
feeds it, anjd supposing several are settled on a tree, the respective pairs
never separate.

205. During the ripening of the fruit of the Psidium pyrifenun and
pomiferum, whole flocks of Psittacus mcnstruus Linn, visit these trees,
but when the season is over, disappear as quickly as they came ; the sani'j
thing also happens with the blue headed Psittacus Maaoimiliana Kuhl.
during the ripening of different species of Ficus which grow in the
vicinity of the coast. Both species in the Colony are considered great deli-
cacies in Georgetown.

204. 'Amongst mammals, only representatives of beasts of prey are
really to !be seen in the immediate vicinity of the city, because except for
a Nasua-y Gulo, Procydn, Didelphys, Chironectes and now and then a
Jaguar, it is rarely that a deer, a Dasyprocta Ayuti or a Goelogenys
Paca puts in an appearance : a far more frequent visitor on the estates
farther remote is the jaguar in particular.

205. Everybody who wants to carry a gun, i.e. to hunt over the cul-
tivated portions of the Colony, has to pay a yearly licence of 8 dollars :
only Inidians are exempt from it. The reason for1 the tax dates from 'the
time before Emancipation when it was imposed to render the carrying of
fire-arms by negroes a matter of difficulty, -though after they obtained
their freedom it was considered advisable to retain it; the idea was that

68 ATTACKED BY. YELLOW

the whole black population instead of devoting their attention to work,
might rather spend their time in the noble art of hunting, and the pre-
caution has naturally borne but little fruit considering that the price
of a gun and the amount of the tax are earned quickly enough.

206. It still seemed as if I were to be everywhere the first to pay the
penalty which foreign custom, the sea, and the climate exacts from
everybody — some lucky dogs executed. In London I committed so many
a breach of English etiquette that I got laughed at : on the voyage out I
was the first to succumb to sea-sickness, and here again I was the first
amongst all the passengers on 'the "Cleopatra" to fall a victim to yellow
fever. Whether it was my neglect to pay more attention above every-
thing else, to the warning about avoiding exposure to the direct rays of
the sun, than I could possibly do in view of my disposition and the thous-
ands of natural history treasures which surrounded me, or whether it was
a matter of constitution — at any rate, the mental excitement into
which the new unhabituated life had transplanted me, was now only too
soon to be appreciably deadened by the unutterable pains and torments
of that awful disease which I suffered to a degree beyond anything
which even the doctors themselves could call to mind for a long time
past.

207. My brother and I had spent the evening prior to the attack
amongst- some of our acquaintances: on returning home I tumbled into
my hammock and felt fine. Towards morning a dull oppressive head-
ache awakened me from sleep and as I hoped to relieve it on my usual
morning outing, made as early a start as possible. But how I had
deceived myself! I could have been away hardly an hour when my
strength gradually failed, the headache increased, and insufferable pains
m the back now became associated with it. I dragged myself home as
best I could, cast aside the specimens collected on this fateful excursion,
and threw myself into the hammock, where my brdther found me already
half senseless with most frightful fever. His first look only too evi
dently convinced him that I had fallen a victim to the terrible Destroy-
ing Angel of the Tropics, though I myself learnt the real nature of the
disease only on my convalescence.

208. After giving the people around me the strictest orders not to
satisfy my ignorance on any account whatever, he immediately hurried
off to call in a well-known doctor, who assured me that I was only suf-
fering from the usual climatic fever and would soon get over it, Twenty
grains of quinine and as much calomel, which I had to take every two
hours either as powder or pill were the medicines the first doses of which
I took while yet in a state of consciousness. This stage nevertheless dis-
appeared rapidly enough, for which reason I can really only say but little
concerning my illness from personal experience: the description of its'
course is only according to what was subsequently told me. After the
calomel had taken effect, they had stopped it, but continued dosing me
with quinine. All mental exertion ceased : the following three days are
a blank in my life— I cannot include them in it. By next morning they
had already shaved my head and spread the whole back of it and nape
with^a spanish-fly plaster. All measures proved of no avail: the fever
still increased and finally, to sustain nay entirely exhausted strength,

MY RECOVERY. 1 o9

they applied the most powerful stimulants : indeed, even, during the most
critical stage they had given me within a couple of hours two bottles of
champagne, had packed my whole body in ice, and wrapped it round
with towels soaked in ice-water. In spite of four of the best medical
men being in continual attendance, and of everything being done to avert
the onset of the last stage of the disease, this nevertheless took place on
the afternoon of the fourth day. With the appearance of the black vomit
consisting of a coffee-like evacuation that now set in and at the same
time indicated the initial internal disintegration, the doctors gave me up
as past help. The breathing and the heart-bea/ts were no longer notice-
able and all had left the death-chamber. Mr. Glascott then returned to
the room, laid his hand again upon my heart, bent his face once more
over my mouth and still found breath. The quickly recalled medicoes
renewed their operations and the blood suddenly burst from mouth and
nose to such an extent that it was six hours before it could be arrested.
The hope of recovery was again awakened in my brother, and the doctor's
"if your brother survives till midnight, there is hope," after cessation of
the bleeding, were the first words of consolation from the self confident
and well-known Dr. Smith. I lived over midnight and was also for twen-
ty years the first case in Georgetown that had survived an attack of yel-
low fever after onset of the black vomit,

209. I accordingly remain indebted for evermore to my friendly and
self-sacrificing physicians whose combined efforts I have alone, after God,
to thank for nay life. Probably none of them will ever see this'expression
K>f my gratitude, yet I am forced to give utterance to it. And although
I am deeply indebted to all, I feel more particularly so to one of them,
a countryman, become so dear to me, Dr. Koch of Niirnberg, who in the
year 1833 had fled to avoid the Investigations into the then Student
Corps, and proved himself to me in Georgetown an honourable and noble
German: neither day nor night did he leave my bedside, until he was
finally and fully convinced that all danger was past. It wras through him
also that I learnt I had had Yellow Fever — and that I had indeed been
attacked was demonstrated at first sight in the looking-glass which he
held before me, wherein — not myself, no, it could not be — but a citron
yellow hollow-eyed bald-headed fellow met my astonished lustre-less gaze :
even the whites of my eyes had taken on the Colour. As previously men-
tioned, the convalescence progresses in equal proportion with the rapid-
ity of development : the almost visibly declining vitality at the outbreak
of the disease is restored at just as quick a rate as soon as the crisis is
over. Notwithstanding my having to learn to walk all over again, and
that at first I could not move an arm, much less the whole body from one
side to the other, I nevertheless made a fair recovery within the course
of four weeks : of course, in addition to my strong constitution, the bene-
ficial and lively knowledge of the general sympathy, even on the part of
those still unknown to me, contributed a good deal to this. Every morn-
ing my room was brightened with the freshest and most exquisite "of flow-
ers : the most luscious fruits smiled at me from neatly plaited little bask-
ets on all the tables and no sooner was my health sufficiently re-establish
ed to allow of my leaving the room, than the Governor's carriage came
every evening to our house to enquire whether I might go for a drive : —

60 ANOTHER ARTIST.

iii short, everything had combined to make me forget that under a foreign
sky and among comparative strangers, I had overcome a disease which
only a few, attacked to the extent that I was, had been able to survive.
L'lU. My illness had made many a heart quake, but particularly thajt
jf Mr. Walton the draughtsman of the Expedition. Hardly had he learnt
that 1 was down with yellow fever than he very hastily exchanged home
and city for a remotely situate plantation. But as his residence here al«o
could not protect him from slight climatic fever his well-contrived, cal-
culating caution replaced his former rash enthusiasm for ,travel, with the
result that, what with the many rumours spread concerning dangers
threatening our Expedition, he made up his mind to return as quickly as
possible to England where he would be safe from perils and yellow fever.
His determination was fixed and iny brother's persuasive powers that he
should postpone the delivery of his already written resignation to the
Governor proved of no avail. Although His Excellency was not quite
satisfied as to the urgency of his return and did not want to let him go
under any consideration but particularly because our preparations were
visibly Hearing completion at a very early date, my brother managed to
arrange that the matter be left in the hands of a Medical Board. This
fortunately decided that Mr. Walton could not accompany the expedition
without danger to life, and thus he parted from us without having seen
realised his fantastic dreams of the sylvan scenery of a tropical virgin
forest. During Ms stay Mr. Walton had only painted one single small
landscape, which however cost the Colonial Department more than £300
it having very generously paid his passage out and home, together with
his stipulated salary up to the time of his arrival in England.

211. Months must necessarily pass before another artist could be
despatched from England, and the Expedition would have had to leave
without one had not a young doctor of the Colonial Hospital, Mr. Echlin,
who was at the same time a skilful draughtsman, readily offered his ser-
vices to accompany us into the interior, not only as artist but also as
medical officer, until the gentleman requisitioned for should arrive from
London.

212. It would be about another four weeks before we could leave for
the mouth of the Orinoco. Before getting ill I had already received the
most pressing invitations not only from our gallanl countryman, Mr..
Bach, but also from the owner of one of the largest sugar estates (Zee-
Jandia) on Wakenaain Island at the Essequibo mouth, Mr. Arrindell*
and his sweet wife, to come and spend a time with them. My illness had
so far prevented me accepting, but now the doctors themselves insisted
upon my leaving the city until the expedition was ready to start so that
I might join it in perfect health and strength. However gladly I would
have hurried off to Mr. Bach, Zeelandia was nevertheless recommended
as the healthier spot, and I had to follow their advice.

213. The estate's schooner which came to the city twice weekly offer-
ed me a quick passage to Zeelandia where I was affectionately and heart-
ily received by Mr. Arrindell's equally charming family— Mrs. Arrindell

*&£$$** *' U" EaJt C™1 S1«« I-™*-. and Ured to become Chief

FRIENDS AT ZEELANDIA. 61

and Miss Ross, a near relative of Mr. Arrindell who, having no children
of his own, had adopted her on the death of the latter's father, the doctor
on the Island of Tortola.

214. Miss Ross was undoubtedly the most beautiful Creole I had as
yet seen : 17 years of age, intellectual, and gifted with a sparkling humour.
What wonder then that — with the loving attention and motherly care of
Mrs. Arrindell and the intimate terms like those of sister and brother that
were quickly established between Miss Ross and myself, and allowed of
my soon having no secrets to hide — my health returned more quickly than
I could ever have dared to hope. In the continual company of these
ladies the days sped like lightning and if the conversation flagged of an
evening, the rich and choice! library quickly started it on its course again.
There was only one thing that these ladies could not stand, and that was
my English pronunciation. Taking compassion on me Miss Ross gave
me lessons and never indeed did a teacher have a more diligent pupil, nor
a learner thirsting for knowledge a more perfect instructress. I mado
giant strides and must regret all the more sadly that my brother's sum-
mons to Georgetown prevented my reporting whether Miss Ross would
have progressed as rapidly with her German that I had commenced
teaching her, as my English pronunciation ceased jarring upon her ears.

215. Just as Mr. and Mrs. Arrindell treated me, a stranger, so they
treated their subordinates, and I must admit that I had never as yet
seen such amicable relations between employers and employed as was
daily, nay, hourly, unfolded before me.

216. Every morning and evening the whole of the servants gathered
in MKS. ArrindelPs room, where she read the prayers ; just in the same
way, in conjunction with the estate's school-teacher, the former clergy-
man having been transferred, she led the Sunday prayers in the littl"
church, while Miss Ross accompanied the singing on the organ.

217. Although at first Mrs. Arrindell's motherly anxiety would on no
account let me accompany her and Miss Ross on their daily morning
outing, which was always on horseback, it was not many days before she
was unable to resist my keen desire to learn something about the laying
out, cultivation and management of the estate — and a third horse soon
stood saddled at the front. Accompanied by the ladies than whom I
could not have wished for better mentors, I commenced my economic and
industrial enquiries. Miss Ross, though but a novice in the noble art
sat her spirited little Victoria in such dashing and easy style as to make
me think that in the pretty Creole with dark sparkling eyes and black hair
covered by a broad straw hat T already recognised one of the Amazons
whose realms we hoped to be the first to discover on our journey to the
interior. It was on these morning rides that T learnt to know not only
the island itself, but with the manager's help, also something about the
methods of sugar-boilinjr and other matters connected with it.

218. Zeelandia is a large estate lying immediately on the northern
smt of the island of Wakenaam, so that ft is beinc continually washed by
the billows of the ocean and exposed to the cooling breezes of the sea.
Not far from the landing stage on a refreshing lawn, fringed by majestic
cabbage-palms and fruit-laden orange-trees stood the charming mansion
with its open gallery: it was enclosed by a thickly hedged crescent of

62 SUGAR-CANE CULTIVATION.

Clerodendron inerme and Hibiscus rosa sinensis. The manager's quar-
ters as well as the store and boiling houses were erected some distance
away. Attached to these on the westward, and extending at right angles
along the banks of the Efcsequibo was a long row of nice white dwellings :
these were for the working negroes living on the estate and were sur-
rounded and shaded by a broad leafy roofing of Hum crepitans Linn.,
and lovely Acsdii/nomcna, Erytlirina, Bauhinia, Poinciana and Gardenia.
The extensive and prolific cane-fields, etc. lay in front of the owner's resi

2l) In accordance with the changes it has already effected socially
and industrially, the application of steam power has exercised consider-
able alteration and simplification in the process of sugar-boiling. What
formerly required a number of hands can now be done by it alone, while
the small supply of manual labour at present offering can still be utilised
by the estate for field-work instead of being frittered away uselessly.

220. Although the cultivation of cane and its manufacture by boiling
is generally known, both processes vary so much and, in several respects
so essentially, according to the nature of the lands producing it, that it
may not perhaps prove uninteresting to many a reader, were I to give a
short sketch of the particular procedures.

221. After the land intended for cane cultivation has been cleared of
all timber, thoroughly turned up with hoe and spade, supplied with irri-
gation trenches, divided into beds, and surrounded with parapets and
clams to prevent the water from out of the canals getting into the plan-
tation, parallel drills one foot broad and nine inches deep are hoed
across all the beds at intervals of from four to four and a half feet. Into
these drills at intervals of every two feet are stuck either three or four
"tops" — the tops or terminals of old plants which are best suited for the
purpose — or else cuttings, 15 inches long with three or four eyes in them,
that have been cut from off the top ends of the ripe canes at harvest
time. Twelve inches of earth cover them so that only three inches are
exposed. They have not succeeded as yet in propagating the plants
from seofls in Guiana. Six to eight of such drills constitute, a bed, and
each bed is separated from its neighbour by a one or two foot drain lead-
ing into the irrigation trenches already mentioned. Within four weeks"
time the cuttings have caught, when the earth is moulded around the
"onno- plants, a portion of the heaped-up soil filling up the interspaces
between and around each. At the subsequent weeding more earth is simi-
larly moulded un so as to supply the roots with quite a thick bed of soil.
Three months after planting, the young plant already sends out new
shoots (canes) : from now on until the sixth month it has to be kept
scrupulously clean, and to gjve it air, mnslt be trashed i.e. cleared of its
dead leaves. In the course of ten months, particularly on new and still
virgin soil, the cane reaches maturity, when it is cut and the first crop
harvested. The wnea.lo.jry of *ne field commences with this first harvest.
for each succeeding one is accurately recorded so that the manager can
piwavs tell whether the cultivation is in its first or eighteenth crop.
TV hen this is reached the land is planted with fresh tops or cuttings, and
new records begin. The first crop is always the richest in sugar. The
cane also varies in size with the fertility of the soil. In a new moist soil

MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR, 63

it often reaches a height of from ten to sixteen feet while in dry limy
ground it rarely exceeds from six to ten. Soon after the crop readies
maturity, the root-stock (stool) starts sending out new shoots for the next
crop or ratoon. In a rich soil and with good attention and care, the
original plant can even supply 18 crops. The ground receives no other
manure than what it gets from its own fallen trash. The chief work
that can only be carried out by manual labour is the continual hoeing
and weeding and the removal of shoots springing up after the rooting
out of the timber, especially those of the Cecropia peltata Linn., which 011
account of its far-reaching roots is the greatest enemy of the planters, for
it not only impoverishes the soil, but if even a rootlet as long as one's fin-
ger is left behind it will start afresh and likewise multiply through the
germinal capacity of its seeds. Indeed, according to the nature of the
bush and size of the trees carried, the cost of bringing under cultivation
an acre of land iritended for agriculture rung into 70 to 100 dollars. Two
s'trong labourers can keep three acres in good condition and even bring
them to maturity without having to over-exert themselves. [According;
to general opinion, a deep rich clayey soil mixed with sand or gravel and
decayed vegetable, as well as a loamy one mixed with rotted plant materi-
al, are the mbst suitable for sugar cultivation. With such a soil, based
upon twelve years produce, inclusive of good crops and bad ones depen-
'dent upon unsuitable weather, every acre annually yields on an average
2i tons of sugar, 250 gallons syrup, and 100 gallons rum 34 per cent.
overproof.

222. A moderately damp yet hot year with the thermometer varying
between 80° and 90° F. and South and East winds prevailing, is generally
considered the most favourable weather for cane production, while a
lower temperature with ruling North-West and North-East winds and
unusually hot and dry weather is considered to be most prejudicial. The
most favourable period in the development of cane for the production
of sugar comes immediately after the arrows (blossoms) are formed.

223. On the larger and rationally worked estates one sixth of the
whole area under cultivation is newly planted every year, and the main
crop gathered in January, February, March, or during the last four
months of the year: the months of October, November, December and
January are reckoned to be the best for quality of sugar. The capital
outlay, to keep an acre under good cultivation, together with the cost "of
manufacture of its proceeds, runs on an average into 80 to 90 dollars.

224. After cutting, the ripe cane is brought in so-called punts to the
mill where it is squeezed between three iron rollers turned on their axis
by steam power. The rollers are fixed as in a triangle with their sur-
faces so closely approximating one another that on the first time through
all the juice contained in the cane is expressed, and runs into a tank
placed below, from where it is pumped into a tub standing on a higher
level. The pressed-out cane (megass) falls into a barrow which, after
being filled, is brought on rails by a simple mechanical contrivance to
Hie large "megass logie" to be dried, after which it is used for firing the
boiling vats.

225. After* the tub is filled, a quantity of unslaked lime is thrown into it
to promote separation of the coarse vegetable particles and the contents

64 APPRAISEMENT OF AN ESTATE.

then led into the boiling vat : this has to be done fairly rapidly, because
the juice quickly starts to ferment, a process that has to be prevented at
all costs. Along the fire walls stands a row of four to five copper vats
in decreasing sizes in which by pouring out from the first into the second
etc., room is made for the juice rushing down from the tub. In the last
and smallest of the vats this is thickened to the consistency of syrup, and
is conveyed from there to the Trays or Vacuum Pan. The scum rising
during the boiling process runs off in a gutter leading to the distillery.
The vacuum-pan now generally employed is placed either immediately
opposite or somewhat farther away from the vats : in the latter case the
syrup is pumped into them. After the sugar has completely separated
into individual crystals, the crystalline mass still mixed with the non-
crystalline fluid molasses is crammed into large square air-tight iron boxes
across which at about a third of their depth from below is stretched
another wire-mesh false bottom upon which the stuff rests. The empty
lower space is exhausted of its air by means of two steam-power pumps
opening into it, by which means the whole of the molasses is extracted
from the crystals lying above almost absolutely pure, and led into a cis-
tern near by. Through these simple improvements and simplifications
of the whole boiling process there is a saving of three tenths in time
alone, because at present the whole process, which formerly required
eight, days, in addition to undivided attention and labour, is now com-
nleted within 15 hours. After the molasses is extracted, the raw crys-
tals are immediately packed in large casks, which nowadays do not re-
quire to be pierced with holes to drain off the molasses since none re-
mains behind among the crystals. After running off the molasses from
the iron boxes and completing the fermentation of the scum the whole
is brought into the distillery. The captains much prefer this form of
sugar to that crystallised by earlier methods, when during the voyage
the molasses escaping into the ship's hold, whither it trickled from
hogsheads that had been drilled, had to be pumped out daily, a proce-
dure which in the case of large vessels, meant on an average an hour's
loss per diem.

226. Windsor Castle, a sensibly arranged and intelligently conducted
sugar-estate of 750 acres on the Arabian Coast, together with the attach-
ed buildings and working plant was legally appraised at the following
value, the subjoined particulars of the property giving the necessary de-
tails : —

411 acres cultivated land for sugar-cane at |200 per acre | 82,200
40 acres for cultivation of plantains at |84 per acre 3,360

250 acres for later cultivation, but not yet cleared, at |30

per acre 7^590

3 Meg-ass Logies, with the log-carts and rails belonging

thereto 14)000

Steam Engine and Steam Mill, together with Vessels for

Juice etc. 18 000

Boiler House, with Vats, Clarifiers, Coolers etc.,
Manager's House, Cisterns for Molasses, Distilling Rooms

and Distillery Apparatus 16,000

Boats and Cane Punts 2,000

TAIN

Landing House and other spaces, Crane etc. 1,600

Bridges, Sluices etc 2,660

Live Stock 1,500

Labourers' Dwellings 24,000

Residence and Office 5,000

Hospital for Sick Labourers 1,000

Cooperage and Timber Yards, Store Rooms etc. 2,500

Total $199.520

And yet at the present time the owner would hardly get $40;000 for
it.

227. A cane-field swaying backwards and forwards in the light sea*
breeze, undoubtedly constitutes one of the most pleasing of landscapes,
becoming even more delightful and imposing however to the observer's
gaze when enclosed in beautiful fields of plantain with their huge sap-
green leaves. The plantain (Musa paradisiaca) which before Emanci-
pation was the chief ingredient of the slaves' dietary, is cultivated upon
almost every estate. The same role that the potato plays in the national
economy of Europe is taken by the plantain in the West Indies. If
bananas are eaten only when ripe, plantains are chewed when already
half-grown, enjoyed in all stages, and prepared iii the most different
ways. Taken out of 'the skin half-ripe, roasted on the ashes and then
eaten with butter, they take the place of bread at breakfast: in a half
matured condition boiled with spice and meat, they form a very tasty
vegetable: dried and pounded they afford a splendid flour for puddings.
When quite ripe, as shewn by their yelloAV colour, they are used as veg-
etables as well as eaten raw, but in the latter case are no good for the
European on account of their easily giving him dysentery.

228. Plantains are also propagated by suckers because as with the
sugar-cane, the seed does not arrive at complete germination. Within
ten or eleven months, the young sucker already bears fruit, of
which individual bunches frequently weigh from 60 to 70 pounds, and I
have been informed of a number of cases where one acre has yielded
30,000 Ibs. of plantains. As every stalk onty bears once, this is cut
down at the same time as the crop, so that the whole of the sap in the
root-stock may supply the young suckers of which from three to four are
left.

229. The 'cultivation of the plantain requires but little care. The
weeding of the field once or twice, and the cutting down of the trunk
with its ripe fruit is all the work required. The Banana (Musa sap-
ientum) is less frequently cultivated and generally eaten only when
ripe: it also requires from 9 to 10 months to ripen, but then easily be-
comes rotten unless the individual fruit is cut off and dried in the sun
or oven. The stem of the banana is shorter and more compact than that
of the plantain, just as the fruit also at maturity can be distinguished
from that of the latter by its brownish red colouring and more compact
growth. Amongst other varieties there is distinguished above all others
in virtue of their vigorous growth the Musa Cavendishii Paxton and M.
chinensis Sweet, a dwarfed variety.

&> ESTATE MANAGEMENT.

230. For some years past an extremely peculiar disease has intr6-
duced itself in the Musa plantations : this has become particularly dan-
geroiiB owing to its having proved so infective that if one shaft is attack-
ed the whole plantation follows suit and perishes. Unfortunately one
has not yet found any remedy for this "Worm" disease as the Colon-
ists call it.

231. Av Hen tne tree is attacked its outward appearance inimediaeiy,
shows iL ana the whole plantation Has to be cut U.O\VM u> pi -event tiie
mrther spread to others. The disease itseii starts from the innermost
vascular bundles which take on a brownisn colour intermixed with a
number of black spots, mis decomposition of the sap soon extends
to the whole shaft. The growth of the plant as well as that of the
fruit is arrested and a resinous exudation renders the latter absolutely
uneatable. 11 tne same piece of land is going to be replanted, suckers
iroin a healthy plant must be used, because experience has taught that
even tlie suckers contain the diseased material of the rnotner-piani.
.Unfortunately my stay was too short to make myself absolutely certain
of the real cause: in my opinion the whole phenomenon comes about
in rough a parasitic mould, which has its origin in the altered chemical
relations of the soil consequent on the existing state of cultivation. Ten
years ago the pest was completely unknown, but at the present time
nas gained such strides that it becomes the serious duty of the proprie-
tors to have enquiry made in,to its origin on scientific lines.

232. As the owners of the larger estates reside for the most part in
England, their control is almost always placed in the hands of a Man-
ager who has to direct the whole cultivation as well as transact all
outside and inside business. Associated with him are the Over-
seers who are employed in greater or less number according to the size
of the property, and fairly correspond with our German Verwalter foe
they are generally young men who want to learn the thorough ground-
work of Esta/te Cultivation and Management. Next to these are the
Headsmen (Drivers) chosen from the most diligent labourers, under
whose direct supervision the out-door and in-door work is carried on.
An estate often has from six to eight such Drivers. Owing to the well-
known indolence of the negro the field-work is let out by piece work :
those employed in the boiling houses and farm buildings receive a daily
>vage because they are not engaged there permanently until they can
prove their ability after long experience. Every labourer who works
upon an estate receives free quarters, free medical treatment and med-
icine, and, according to the number of his family a fixed piece of land
for cultivating what is required by his own household, or else a fixed
quantity of plantains weekly. If the plantation is at all extensive, the
proprietor is bound to keep, at his own expense, a school-teacher for
the labourer's children. If on the other hand the properties are
small,^a joint teacher is usually engaged by three or four neighbouring
ones, just as several estates have a common preacher and a common
church. Briefly put, the above is probably what was most worth know-
ing among the things I noted during my stay on the Zeelandia Sugar
Estate.

I'HE BREAD-FRUIT. 67

233. In the charming and bountiful fruit-gardens the beautiful
bread-fruit trees (Artocarpus imisa and A. integri folia) particularly
attracted uiy attention, and 1 do not consider it out of place here to sup-
ply a short sketch of its introduction from Asia and Islands of the Pacific
to the West Indies. Although Capitain Dainpier had already in 1088
brought to Europe the first reports concerning [this tree, the information
nevertheless passed unnoticed until Captain Cook's companion, the cel-
ebrated Dr. Solander, revived it in glowing terms. The idea of obtaining
bread without any toil as Nature's spontaneous gift sufficed to secure it
general attention: subsequently it even inspired a Byron. Petitions
were soon despatched from the West Indian Colonies to George III pray-
ing that the tree should be introduced at the cost of the State into all
the Colonies the climate of which allowed of its cultivation.

234. Under Bligh, at that time Lieutenant, who had accompanied
Captain Cook on his last expedition, the "Bounty", a Government ship of
215 tons burden, was put into commission to obtain young plants from
Otaheiti. An ample space supplied with large hatchways and draughts
was wholly set apart between decks for their reception and was at the
same time packed with a number of large cases having double bottoms :
the plants were to be placed in these while the superfluous water was
to run off into the lower spaces, the roots being thus protected from
stagnation. The ship managed to start on her journey to the Society
Islands by the end of 1787. At Cape Horn contrary winds forced Lieut-
enant Bligh to make for the Cape of Good Hope, and sail to the Islands
via Australia: he finally reached them on 10th October 1788. By 3nd
April 1789, 1015 living plants had been set in the beds prepared for
them on board ship, and next day the Bounty weighed anchor and turn-
ed for home.

235. On the 28th April however a mutiny that had already been
hatched by the crew at Otaheiti broke out, Lieutenant Bligh was set upon
in his sleep and gagged, and any one not wishing to join the mutineers
ordered to stand alongside him. Of the forty-six forming the crew
eighteen remained loyal, thirteen of whom, together with Lieutenant
Bligh, were then forced to step in to the long-boat /that was lowered into
the water, four of them being kept back without any reason being offered
Lieutenant Bligh says in his account of the mutiny, "People will ask
me, what was the motive for this deed? I can but find the one and only
reason that the mutineers probably flattered themselves that amongst
the natives of O;taheiti they would spend a happier life than in England."

236. After supplying these fourteen outcasts with 150 Ibs. bread, a
few planks, some wine and rum, a quadrant and ship's compass, 'the
vessel turned about and left them to their fate. Inflexible and courageous
the outcasts started on their voyage and fortunately reached Tofoa, one
of the Friendly Islands, but the hostility of the natives induced them
to put quickly to sea again. They soon made New Holland whence they
turned to the Eastern Archipelago and after inexpressible hardships
landed at the Island of Timor. The Dutch Governor rendered every
assistance and arranged for both Bligh's and his companions' passage to

England, where he was straightway gazetted Captain and Commander
of Uie Koyal ship "Providence" whicn was put into commission again
with the utmost despatch to repeat the voyage.

237. tone sailed me 3rd August i79i m company with the "Assis-
tant:; both ships reacneu utalieia salely on 9 in April 1*92 ana by Htn
duly 1781 tuus and barrels were brought on board witn heaitny plants:
the vessel leit the Island and after many a danger arrived on ^nd ucio-
ber at Couzang between jNew Holland and jMew \juinea, wnere tne plants,
tnat Had died on tlie voyage so lar were replaced by new specimen*, aud
on 1'un (?) December" sue dropped anchor at SSu Helena, where Cap-
tain JJligii took on board some ocner kinds of fruit-trees, aniongs.t them
tlie Akee (Uliyhia sapida).

;:3S. On ^ord January 1793 he got to JSt. Vincent where he left 333
bread and 211 other fruit-trees, taking in exchange about 50U tropical
plants for the Botanical Gardens at Kew. From St. Vincent he made
ior Jamaica where he delivered 347 bread-trees and 276 other fruits. He
also took tlie new plants to Grand Cayman and, other Islands, and finally
landed in England on 2nd August 1793.

239. In spite of all the trouble and risks taken, in introducing the
bread-fruit, subsequent events showed that tlie encouraging and con-
fident hopes centred on its cultivation were not to be fuinned at all.
The plantain and banana nave neither been replaced nor superseded,
because it is only in cases of extreme necessity that the negroes turn
to bread-fruit as an article of food.

240. In company with my charming Cicerone I was soon able to ex-
tend the area of my excursions farther afield along the virgin forest
through which practicable roads had been cut on all sides so as to es-
tablish regular communication between the dmereiit estates on tne
island.

241. What hours of innocent pleasure we spent together when, at
low tide, engaged in mutually instructive conversation we rode along the
beach, now lapped with the waves and cooled in the breeze, or when we
turned into the half-obscured shady paths of the primeval land covered
with trees, and for minutes at a time watched the airy movements of the
elf -like Acrnauta Nestor > Anchyses phorbanta, Hector Protesilaus down
to the little Chorine us. As these flittered under the dazzling sunlight
in one continual chase over the flower carpet of lovely Securidaca volubil-
is Linn., their colours ever changed from glittering gold to darkest indigo-
blue, from bright carmine to a deep red, or from the clearest emerald to
the most luscious green. 1 also found here for the first time pine-apples
with leaves five to six feet long which had grown so thickly, one in be-
tween the other, that they formed absolutely impenetrable hedges. Tlie
fruits are generally very small but, as a compensation, are exceedingly
sweet and aromatic.

242. The fauna showed fair correspondence with that in the environs
of the city. Nothing however interested me so much as a regular, colony
iof Cassicus persicus Baud., which had selected as their home an unus-
ually large Bombax globos^m close to my study window.

"The text has September, which is clearly an error. (Ed.)

ALLIGATORS' TENACITY OF LIFE. 69

243. I had never yet experienced such excitement and noise amongst
birds. The whole of the residents of this huge tree were just then busily
engaged in improving their long purse-like nests and building new ones.
Its peculiarity of successfully imitating the cries and notes of all the
four-footed and winged creatures round about has earned for it the name
of "Mocking Bird." There can hardly be a more turbulent or noisy
songster than this mimic. If the rest of the animal world is silent, it
sings its own particular song which has something quite pleasant about
it. The Toucan perhaps will let its hollow voice suddenly rin^ forth,
and the Cassicus turns into a Toucan : should the various woodpeckers
start their hammering, the Mocking Bird is a woodpecker: let the
sheep bleat, and the bird is never at a loss for an answer, but if
no other sound falls for a few seconds, it harps back again onto its own
peculiar note, until Yhis is interrupted perhans bv a cobble-gobble, or
nnnck-ouack in the farm buildings, when it imm°diatelv turns into a
turkey or a duck. This mimicry is accompanied simulta^eousV with
such extraordinary movements and contortions of the head, neck, and
whole borlv that T hav<* o^tpn had to bur$t into loud laughter at the gar-
rulous and assuming bird. Cassicus haemorrhus Baud, is very gener-
ally associated with Cf. verticils upon the one tree, where their nests han^
rOosp fno-pfher in fraternal concord, bu!t is completely deficient in the gift
of imitation. After the breeding season both species separate, and each
flies in its own flock. The Icterus .Tanthornita Baud., or Plantain Bird,
just as plentiful, also hangs its bag-like grass-blade nest on bush and
tree: its abruptlv ending note has something unusually soft and sad
about it, while thaft of Interns icteroccphaJus Baud, is onlv a twitter.
The sweetest sontrster however was unquestionably P wren (Tryothorus)
which aleo seeks the neighbourhood of man as keenlv as the latter loves
and cherishes it : an empty bottle, which is quickly usurped by the pretty
pinker for its ouarters, is purposed hunpr here and there under the roofs
of the <ra!1eries ?md porticoes Its melodious note greets the earliest
rays of 'the morninjr sun and accompanies it uritil it, dins on the far*
horizon into the vastv deep. The IHtle orpatnro at th^ same time he-
pornes so tame that it will come in through the open window of the study,
and perchinp- on the sill, warble its lovelv little tune in front of the oc-
cupants. Here as elsewhere it is strange that Nature for some reason
unknown to us should deny a beautiful voice to the birds it graces with
a brilliant plumage, but grant it to those from whom it has withheld
one.

244. Mrs. Arrindell having given me to understand that, for some
Hm* past, a pair of alligators were lurking in the draining trench im-
mediately behind her fowl-coop, to the serious detriment of its occupants,
not onlv my curiosity to watch these voracious gentry at close quarters
but also my fondness for hunting would allow of no rest until I should
lay the mischievous brutes in triumph at her feet. Cunning and cautious
as they were I finally succeeded in outwitting both the thieves : they were
Alligator punctulatus Spix. Neither of them was more than four feet
but dowered with such a tenacity of life that it was long before we man-
aged to kill them, although I had shot them both in the eye, and partic-

70 THE MOUTH OF THE ESSEQUIBO.

ularly to avoid damaging the skin had used ball cartridge. The negroes
begged for the flesh : they considered it very delicate and tasty.

245. Among the domestic animals, I got a great surprise with the
sheep which, in the small flocks that are kept on every estate for their
mutton, I took to be goats : the wool changes completely into smooth and
straight mohair, on which account they are shorn immediately after
importation into the Colony so that at least one fleece may be secured.

246. In these glorious surroundings, in this dear and charming fam-
ily, my five weeks' stay had flown quicker than a dream, when one morn-
ing my brother in company with a Mr. King, the Superintendent of the
Barima and Essequibo Districts unexpectedly entered my room,. They
had come to fetch me for a short trip to Bartika Grove, a Mission Sta-
tion on the Essequibo where my brother wanted to induce some of the
coloured people living in the neighbourhood who had been with him as
bofft-hands on his previous journeys, to accompany him again to the
mouth of the Orinoco. My most necessary things were quickly packed
and within a few hours we were waving good-bye from the schooner to
our friends ashore. The vessel my brother took advantage of was on
her way to Bartika Grove to load granite and belonged to a country-
man, Mr. Spamann who, after a forty years' residence in the Colony had
earned a fairly considerably competency: unfortunately the poor fel-
low had lost his mo'ther- tongue almosit completely, for the way he spoke
it was so broken that I should have taken him for anything but a Ger-
man.

247. Facing like watchmen the twenty mile broad estuary of the
Essequibo are the three large wooded islands of Leguan, Wakenaam
and Tiger Island all of them decked with sugar estates. Leguan, stretch-
ing along the Eastern bank, is about twelve miles long, and contains 24
plantations : Wakenaam, off the Western shore, nine miles long and three
broad, has 18 estates: Tiger Island with three plantations, is situate
somewhat more to the Northward and is closer to the Western bank.

248. The commencing flood-tide carried us slowly up the proud
stream along the channel between Wakenaam and Tiger Island until
suddenly, at the Southern extremity of the latter, a regular island-arch-
ipelago spread itself before my astonished gaze. Following this, and
divided by but a channel, is Parrot Island, while the 15-mile long Hog
Island only cultivated at its Northern end, rather strings itself onto
Wakenaam. To the East of Hog Island we find Fort Island (Large
and Small) which, constituting the central poinjt of the whole trade of
the Colony during the times of Dutch occupation, is at present only
occupied by a few coloured people who have erected their unassuming
houses among and in the ruins of the proud fortress of former days. To
the West of Hog Island, Great and Little Truly (Trouili) Islands are
to be seen : they have received their name from the Manicaria saccifera
Gartt., which the Colonists call Truly-Palm: a few estates are also sit-
uate on Great Truly. Closely connected with these two islands is a
regular chain of smaller ones of which I only make mention of Buria-
banalle, Kuketritte-kute, Large and Small Laulau as well as Mawuwe-
kute. On the Eastern bank, on the other hand, near the Fort Islands,
the most important are Kuaepaluri, Kakatiri, and Quatte-banaba. It
is only on the Western bank in its lower reaches that there flow into this

SAXICALLY POINT. 71

majestic river a number of small tributaries, amongst which the Cap-
ouye, Iteribisce, Supenaam, Arocari, Werri-werri, and Abenacari or
Groote Creek are the most conspicuous.

249. We had to pass Large and Small Lulu (Laulau) Island before
both banks of the Essequibo became visible in the far distance, though
they still lay eight miles apart. As we ever kept in the middle of the
stream, the dark edges of the smooth stretch of water let me have a good
guess at the wealth of foliage, but not to distinguish the different sorts
of genera and species composing it. It was only the palms, such as
Guilielma, Maximiliana, Oreodoxa and the slender Leopoldinia vying
with the boiler-house chimneys in their efforts to reach the skies, as they
towered with their graceful crowns above the obscure fringe, that were
distinguishable at a distance through their characteristic shapes of

frond.

250. In the absence of any favourable wind we had to cast anchor
With the commencing ebb and wait for the next flood-tide. The river
here looked like some inland lake studded with numerous woody islands,
because those situate behind were so closely packed together that the river1
mouth was completely hidden. A number of high chimneys that rose in
isolated spots above the luxurian't growth of tropical forest, and indicat-
ed the creative hand of man, lent to the surrounding landscape an infinite
charm, and at the same time a character which I have found peculiar
only to the Essequibo: the thousands of parrots that towards sundown
were flying over the water with deafening din from West to East fur-
ther helped to improve it. Judging from the rank vegetation, the land
here must be unusually fertile. We were able to resume- our journey be-
fore daybreak, a little after which Mr. King, with a view to visiting cer-
tain of the settlements on the Eastern bank, left us for the corial which.
as he had been expected, we soon saw being paddled towards us. Daybreak-
was greeted with the same flocks of parrots, which now flew over the
stream 'from East to West probably looking to plunder fruit-trees any-
where in this direction of the compass.

251. The washing tide soon brought us to Itaka Creek which joins
the Essequibo from the Eastward. The first rocks now appear. They
belong to the primitive series, stretch unusually far into the river and at
high flood are completely covered by the waves, for which reason a very
experienced steersman is necessary to avoid all the dangers attendant on
the passage of boats. Partly to avoid these, and partly also with a view
to lunching with one of our captain's acquaintances, a timber merchant
whose factory was already beckoning to us, in the far distance from off
Saxically, a projecting rock on the Western bank, the schooner was
turned in that direction. Mr. Moller received us in a most friendly fash-
ion and we gladly let him persuade us to spend the night there. On
resuming our journey next morning we found the stream narrowed to
more than half on account of the Saxically rocks. The extraordinary
sight of a 20 to 30 ft. high cliff projecting into the river immediately at-
tracted our attention. It was a sandstone* full of magnetic iron with

. — — — — — — — 1

"There is no sandstone at Saxically Pt. The rocks consist of pre-Cambrian gneiss. The banding is
well-marked. Some of the bands consist of quartz and manganese oxide. They are extremely hard and
resistant and form the cliff referred to. The land has been located as a manganese mine and prospecting
operations haye already (1919) been begun. (E.E.W.)

72 BARTIKA GROVE MISSION.

wavy strata, similar to Itabirite. In the immediate neighbourhood of
this upright rising crag lay at the same time beds of sandstone that were
tinged black and cemented by iron and manganese. Directly opposite the
cliff on the Eastern bank the river Ainpa flows into the Essequibo, the
Indian Post (Sec. 191) of the same name lying in the close vicinity.
Some six miles above Ampa several dangerous rocks again emerge above
the surface, the "Three Brothers" and "Three Sisters," of which one has
the exact shape of a huge head bobbing out of the water. As soon as
WR had turned our backs on the small unoccupied islands of Patta-pateima
and Nai-kuripa, the cheery white house of Bartika Grove Mission already
at a tolerable distance away smiled invitingly at us from out of the thick
succulent foliage of plantains and coconut palms. My brother had
told me that in Mr. Bernan the Missionary I would find a German and
that a. Prussian born. Our schooner soon cast anchor under the houses
that had been built upon the rise, the boat paddled quickly to the lanrt-
ing-stage, and we were most heartily received and welcomed by a Siles-
ian, Mr. Bernan and his wife.

252. Bartika Grove is the most important of the new Missions that
1 found in Guiana. It is maintained by the Episcopal Church, and was
established and managed by Armstrong, an Englishman in 1833. He was
succeeded by Missionary Youd who, inspired by an inward passion for
the Ideal, was induced by my brother, after a short stay in Bartikai Grove
to shift the scene of his labours to the country of the Makusis where he
founded Pirara Mission. As in the course of my journey I have still
much more to say about this station, which at the same time was so full
of promise, I propose postponing its short history until later.

253. Mr. Bernau who was educated in the mission schools of Basle
and London, accepted the post of Missionary Youd, and has been labour-
ing here now for some years. The mission numbers about some 110
residents, mostly coloured people. In Mr. Bernau I came to know not
only an unusually industrious and extremely estimable teacher, but
also a man who, thoroughly absorbed in his high calling, devotes to it
his entire spiritual and bodily strength. Experience unfortunately has
taught him that no field is to be found amongst the older generation
where the seeds of true Christianity can be sewn with success: not the
sort of Christianity that consists in just using the terms "God" or "Lord/-
but The kind that is blessed by inward correspondence with our thoughts,
desires and actions, whereby we love God with our whole heart and soul
and our neighbours as ourselves. A virile civilisation and obstacles of
that nature, especially among the older folk, have opposed its propaga-
tion on such soil with the result that up till now all the efforts of the
worthv man have remained without any lasting results.

^ 254. When first established, several of the Indians accepted his invi-
tation to settle down in the neighbourhood of the Mission, but this
always lasted for only a short while, and their unquenchable thirst for
an unfettered life soon drove them back into their forests; a bent for
the most absolute self-will and their ingrained indolence, according to
which they exert themselves physically only when urgent requirements
demand it, and after its gratification regard any further labour a*
unnecessary— all these combined have unfortunately up to the present

MISSION INMATES. 73

made every such sacrificing effort ineffective. So long as the watchful
eyes of the missionary rested on his grown-up scholars, he could find
no more willing pupils : but hardly were he to turn his gaze aside, 'than
what he had bidden them do was forgotten, the old inclinations again
became their absolute masters, and one Indian disappeared after th«
other: indeed the prohibition about drinking spirituous liquors alone
had already proved sufficient to drive them away. That the seed sewn
by Messrs. Armstrong, Youd and Bernau has not been entirely destroy-
ed however, is quite apparent from the fact that on Sundays certainly
a number of visitors from settlements near and far are to be seen con-
tinually coming to church without any invitation just as unexpectedly
as they take their departure when service is concluded.

255. When, after innumerable attempts, Mr. Bernau recognised
that his sacrifices on behalf of the older generation were in vain, he ex-
erted his utmost with the younger members and, in connection with the
Mission, established a school for Indian children, especially for the
orphans whom he gathered from among the different tribes. At the
time of my first visit the number of little brown proteges had amounted
to 50, by whom he as well as his wife, were most dearly loved. Every
year the zealous missionary takes a trip among the different tribes,
with the object of inducing the parents to trust him with their children
of any age, but he only rarely succeeds in doing this because the Indians,
especially the mothers, are exceedingly fond of their youngsters and
look upon them, especially the girls, as little "helps" for the household.
If orphans whose support falls upon the relatives are found in a settle-
ment they are in most cases readily and freelv handed over to him.
The success with which Mr. Bernau's noble efforts have been crowned,
borders on the marvellous, and one might search Germany in vain for
a school where the pupils pick up with equal ease and rapidity that
which is brought before their juvenile understanding, and where, par-
ticularly in so short a time, the scholars learn to count or speak or to
read and write a foreign language like these little brownies do their Eng-
lish. One little Carib boy learnt to read and write readily within four
months; another, of the Akawai tribe, within fourteen nionths managed
to reckon up to the Rule of Three. The little pupils had also made most
striking progress in singing and I shall never forget the impression which
their soft pleasing voices made on me. Two teachers assist Mr. Bernau
with the boys, and a governess helps Mrs. Bernau with the woman's
work and in minding the little kiddies, some of whom are not yet two
years of age.

256. Besides school-work, the bovs are taught all kinds of manual
labour, in which Mr. Bernau himself shows unusual skill. When the
boys are confirmed, those who desire and are fit for a trade are appren-
ticed to a master. If any show the necessary abilities for teaching, the
Mission itself affords opportunity for such a training, so that later on
they may act as teachers amongst their own people. The girls are also
either trained as teachers or else sent to the best families in George-
town as servants.

257. As soon as a child is handed over to Mr. Bernau, it is no more
permitted to visit its parents in their village but on the other hand they
can come to the Institution whenever they wish an<l stay as long as they

74 CAUTABO

like. JVith this object in view he has had a large house built' where the
parents can reside during their stay.

258. The Boys' Home is large and roomy and serves at the same
time as Church which, like the Girls' Home, is still under construction.
The boys' clothes consisted of a multi-coloured striped shirt, white
trousers, white jacket, and small straw hat.

259. As my brother was anxious to reach by afternoon the colony
of coloured folk at Cartabo Point where he had recruited his former
hands, Mr. Bernau was kind enough to lend us his own boat with which
his strongest pupils were to take us to Cartabo Land-spit which separ-
ates the Mazaruni and Cuyuni, before they fall into 'the Essequibo.

260. Tinder the regulated stroke of our young paddlers we speedily
made our way to the estuary, quite a mile wide, of the Mazaruni and
Cuyuni Rivers which, about eight miles south of this common mouth
join into a single stream. Swift as an arrow we rushed along past the
thickly-timbered Eastern shore until the sudden advance of night envel-
oped everything in darkness and allowed me only sufficient time to
recognise in the glorious carpet of flowers Petrea, Combretum, Schous-
bora, Seciiridaca, several Passiflora and EcJiltcs, as well as many a flour-
ishing MalpigJiiv, Clusia, Mimosa, and Melastoma, while 'the large blos-
soms of Carolinea princcps showed up bright and brilliant through the
thick underwood. On our journey up the Essequibo we had kept as
much as possible in the middle of the s'tream, so that I could only ad-
mire the luxuriant insular and riparian growth as thick masses of fol-
iage. It was already quite dark when we reached Cartabo Point,
where we did nctt find those whom we were looking for. However

worrying this must have been, my brother nevertheless felt pretty
confident that all his former hands would come to Georgetown directly
they heard that he hnd returned to South America and required their
services again.

261. The evening having become unusually dark and stormy, we
determined to spend the night at Cartabo and return to Bartika first
thing on the following morning. The obliging and friendly coloured
folk supplied us with hammocks and, though noft asked, cleared out a
house for our night's quarters, the paddlers preferring the benches and
ground spaces. We were up and about by break of day, which gave me
an opportunity of having a look over the whole settlement and its oc-
cupants.

262. The large number of coloured people who inhabit the Essequibo
and Mazaruni are mostly descendants of Europeans, negroes, and
Indians, all belong to the Established Church, and generally stand on a
higher plane of civilisation than the surrounding Indians. They are
the purveyors for the most part of the dried fish supplied 'to the city,
just as they are the builders of the punts, lighters and corials used on
the estates, in the manufacture of which they develop unusual skill. In
not too stormy weather, one can even trust oneself at sea in these boats.
There is an historical reason for the settlement of this isolated coloured
colony here at the junction of the three rivers. In the year 1738 some
40 odd Creole slaves on the possessions of the Dutch Company banded
themselves together, secretly left their estates and fled to the Cuyuni
where they settled on an island that is still called Creole

RETURN TO BARTIKA GROVE. 75

Island, cultivated some land, and at the same time intrenched
themselves fairly strongly. The news naturally had a disquiet-
ing effect upon the Governor and plantation-owners as it
was feared that the example taken might be repeatedly fol-
lowed. These fears were further increased when the runaways, in
their presumption, went so far as to inform the Governor through some
Indians that if he; wanted to make slaves of them again he must come and
fetch them not only with the whole of his forces but with those of
Holland as well, and that they were accordingly awaiting him with con-
fidence in the firm conviction of seeing the attempt on his part conty-
pletely frustrated. The Governor recognised their advantageous posi-
tion and at the same time all the difficulties to be encountered in the
way of successful attack: he therefore deemed it far better to
conclude a favourable 'treaty than to put to a test the uncertain for-
tunes of war. A certain Peter Tollenaar, a mulatto, was despatched,
unarmed, for the purpose of discussing peace-terms with them on the
following lines: if they did not extend their raids into the Colony but
worked every second month for it, and at the same time gave an assur-
ance not to entice away any more slaves, the Governor would give them
and their descendants their freedom. Peter Tollenaar was successful
in his efforts on behalf of peace and from that time up to Emancipa-
tion this free and coloured population continued its existence. To pre-
vent their children falling back into slavery, the men were at first allow-
ed to marry only free Indian women.

263. We soon reached Bartika Grove again, but left it by next
morning in spite of the entreaties of brave Bernau, who wanted us to
jstay a few days longer. As 'the schooner had not yet taken in her cargo,
we accepted most cordially and gratefully our countryman's offer to
get us to Zeelandia in his own boat and with the aid of his youthful but
expert paddlers. With heartiest good wishes for a successful journey to
the Orinoco, and the promise on our part to spend a few days with him
on our return down the Cuyuni, as was my brother's intention, we left
the Mission and its friendly inmates.

264. The strength of the ebb that had now set in, as well as the
strenuous and skilled help of our indefatigable crew, let the boat skim
over the waves as swiftly as an arrow while with lively interest I wTatch-
ed the youngish paddlers whose eyes and ears kept ever on the alert to
see the smallest object, to hear the slightest noise. In spite of the rapid-
ity with which we sped, they nevertheless noted every fish that was
swimming down there in the water round about the boat, as well as
every bird that the close branches of the trees along the banks were hid-
ing, and if they heard the note of such a feathered creature, or the cry
of some mammal in thq forest, I immediately learnt the name of the guilty
party. One could tell at once the new inmates wrho only recently had
been received in the Institution by the deep melancholy which was in-
wardly awakened by these scenes and stamped a definite mark upon
their faces. The remembrance of their forests, of their free unfettered
life, the recollection of the playing-grounds for their childish sports, had
chased away every smile, every sign of Life from their boyish features.
Taciturn and self-centred there they sat in front of us: they certainly
cast their languishing gaze at the objects that were arousing their com-

76 INDIANS' BOGS.

panions' interest— but not a sound passed their lips — and in silence they
continued to paddle on. Although the majority are quite conversant
with the English language they nevertheless prefer to seize the oppor-
tunity of conversing in their mother-tongue, for which reason the mem-
bers of one and the same tribe at the Institution always keep together
as much as possible.

265. As the sun was already beginning to slip behind the tree-tops
and some houses were noticed along the bank, we determined on putting
in there for the night. We were received on landing with the tempes-
tuous howl of several dogs that fairly threatened to tear us to pieces.
The less satisfied we were with their overtures the more gratified were
we over the friendly welcome of the dear young coloured woman who
immediately gave up her sitting-room for us to sling our hammocks in.
The husband was a boatbnilder and the workshop therefore the best
camp for our crew who were especially delighted because my brother-
had promised to reward them for their strenuous exertions with the ham
that was still left amongst the provisions brought from Georgetown.
He accordingly sent one of the boys down to the boat to fetch it from
his servant. The boy took the opportunity of bringing, in addition to
the ham, some bread and rice, and at the same time his own hammock
which, when he got near the shed, he thought it wiser to sling before the
others had time to pick the best places. He therefore put the ham on
a piece of timber and tied the hammock. This done, he proposed carry-
ing out his orders, but what he looked for had disappeared : the servant
following him of course must have taken the ham to the cook — the only
consolation that was left, him. But the latter had done no such
thing: — the ham and bread were gone, and the rice spilt on the ground,
showing clearly enough that the dogs, now quiet, had just devoured it.
How mad both we and the boys were can well be imagined ! In spite of
their mistress calling them, and notwithstanding every search of the dis-
appointed lads who gladly would have saved at least a piece, the thieves
were neither to be brought back, nor discovered. In the course of half
an hour the brutes returned, licking their greasy snouts. The thieving
instinct of the Indian dogs is greater by far than that of our cats : the
meat in the cooking pats, indeed the whole pot on the fire is not safe
from them, and onlv the most extreme caution saves anything eatable
from their lust for theft, as we subsequently learnt on many an occasion
by experience.

266. The dainty dish had disappeared and rice boiled in water had
to take its place : owing to the young woman being kept on such short
commons that she was unable in the morning to give us a single piece of
cassava for the journey, we had to resume our voyage with empty stom-
achs, but yet with the certainty of finding along the bank during the
course of the day a store kept by a coloured man who dealt in bread
and provisions.

267. Comforted and consoled with this reflexion we made a start — *
but as the hour went by when the healthy appetites of the boys were ac-
customed to be satisfied with breakfast, their strength and exertions
also slackened. Yet however plainly their hunger manifested itself in
their faces, not a complaint, not a murmur passed their lips. But what
a shock when we reached the place we had depended on ancl the peevish

CARIA-CARIA MISSION. 77

store-keeper informed us that he had not a bite of bread in the house '.
The little bit of heart that so far had been left now indeed failed us, as
was to be recognised only too clearly in the diminished progress of the
boat. In addition to this, the weather had changed considerably for the
worse, the Essequibo soon rising into such a state of commotion that
neither the boat nor the relaxed strengh of the crew was a match for
it. In these critical circumstances there still remained a solitary star
of hope, the Mission Station of Caria-Caria situate on the left bank:
this was run by Mr. Peters a coloured man who nevertheless was neither
a clergyman nor real missionary. The renewed prospect of a square
meal made the boys take heart again and the boat's bow was quickly
turned on her new course. We had not paddled far when we noticed
a canoe ahead with which we soon caught up. It was paddled by two
Indians who had come from the forest where they had been collecting
fruit. I never however had seen so frail a vessel, and the two naked
individuals whose black hair hung down over their shoulders like cloaks
must indeed have been very tired of life to have risked it in a nut-shell
go riddled with holes.

268. There is no need to describe how greedily the boys fixed their
eyes on the Astrocaryum and Bactris fruits, and yet my brother hesitat-
ed before gratifying their covetous desires because the Indians would
not part with any of their provisions except for spirits. After a long
delay and before we had even spoken a word, the sad pleading looks that
the youngsters exchanged from between the food and his eyes to read
in them what he intended doing finally prevailed, and a glass of rum
received by each of the Indians brought a portion of the fruit into our
boat. Though one found but little 'to still one's hunger with, the thin
fleshy envelope of the fruit was however gnawed by the boys and us with
as much inward satisfaction as if we had had the best of roast beef in
front of our expectant mouths. The opening of the Albany-cary ( Abena-
cari) on which the station lies, was finally reached and we were about
to spring ashore when an Indian woman, partly in a few English words,
and partly in a much more intelligible dumb-show, because none of th<3
boys understood Arawak, gave us to understand 'that there was just as
little of Mr. Peters here as there was bread. The last sparks of hope
were now extinguished, and the boys' countenances already naturally
marked by melancholy changed into that of absolute despair and found
a striking reflex in our own, because we also were suffering the tor-
ments of nagging hunger, particularly aggravated in my own case, as
the eating of the palm-.fruits had made me vomit badly.

269. In spite of our pantomimic request there was nothing edible
to be got out of the woman and we were forced therefore to continue
our journey, but the sight of a boat that was rowing towards us soon
recalled to life the hopes that were already moribund, and the shout of
"Mr. Peters" by one of the boys redoubled their strength. Mr. Peter?
gave us the most friendly welcome, bid us turn our boat and accompany
him to his place where a big basket of fresh cassava -bread and a
large vessel of cooling lemonade soon made us forget our hours of
hunger.

270. Whether the woman had misunderstood, or purposely wanted
to deceive us, I don't know, — the satisfaction of gratifying our appetites

78 MY BROTHER APPOINTED MAGISTRATE.

did not permit of further enquiry into the matter: it was quite suffi-
cient that a coloured baker lived here to supply us with plenty of bread.
The Mission consisted of 40 houses and about 100 residents, partly col-
oured people, partly Arawak Indians, who out of their own funds hud
built quite a pretty chapel. Mr. Peters belonged to one of the Dissent-
ing bodies and therefore received no support from the Established
Church. The Indians were all clothed and distinguished themselves
to advantage from the coloured people, particularly in their beautiful
long hair.

271. Still desirous of reaching Zeelandia to-day, we were only able
to make a short stay at Caria-Caria. The boys were apparentJy ex-
hausted, and as the lower portion of the estuary of the Essequibo requiiv
ed double strength, my brother considered it advisable to accept Mr.
Peters's offer of taking his boat, and letting the youngsters return to
Bartika Grove. After giving full supplies of provisions to these nice
boys, they returned to Bartika, and we to Zeelandia. It was indeed a
stroke of luck that we had taken a larger boat and stronger pullers be-
cause towards evening the weather again became so boisterous that our
former craft and paddlers would never have been able to stand it: even
as it was, the violence of the waves, their fury still further increased by
the rising flood, forced us to seek shelter on Truly Island at one of the
coffee plantations where we were heartily welcomed. In spite of re-
monstrance our pullers returned to Caria-Caria during the night so afe
not to miss next day's Divine Service, the manager supplying us with a
boat and reliable crew on the following morning.

272. We landed all right aft Zeelandia by mid-day, stayed here until
the Thursday and then, in company with Mrs. Arrindell and Miss Ross
who wanted to spend a short time in the city, travelled in the estate's
schooner to Georgetown which we luckily reached by evening, so as
nowr to complete all the preparations for the First Expedition to the
estuary of the Orinoco, my brother having instructions to start his la-
bours with the mapping of the western boundaries.

273. My brother had already engaged a portion of his boats' crew
during my stay ait Zeelandia and now from day to day was awaiting the
remainder from Essequibo. The large corial which the Expedition
had purchased and christened "Victoria" bid fair to fulfil all the hopes
which one had set upon her durability and lightness. Cut out of one
single trunk it was 43 feeit long, its breadth being considerably increas-
ed by the planking along its edge. All roads cease beyond the culti-
vated areas of the colony where the impenetrable virgin forest still
keeps absolute sovereignty. Overland journeys across impassable
swamps would be Quixotic, and so the rivers remain the only means
whereby the traveller can make his way into the interior.

274. A second corial was still wanted but, not managing to buy any,
my brother was forced to hire one. To maintain the strictest discipline,
the Governor appointed my brother a Magistrate until his return to
Georgetown, so that he could punish by fine, forced labour, reduction of
the daily rum, tobacco, or ration allowance, any subordinate disobeying
his own written instructions or orders of the senior officers of the Expe-
dition. The last-named punishment proved the most effectual for the
negroes. After my brother had tilled the number of his crew, I had a look

AT A LOW EBB. 79

around to get some assistance for myself : this I soon found in my old ac->
quaintance, Stockle, the honest Wurteuiberger. In addition, a few days
later, I engaged a small sprightly lad who gave me to understand he be-
longed to Halle whence with his parents and two brothers he had come
to Demerara before us: the poor people had previously worked on a
coffee estate, from which however yellow fever had driven them to the
city to earn their livelihood. The few days still remaining before taking
our departure, I spent in teaching both uiy subservient geniuses Stockle
and Florenz something about skinning birds and mammals, as well as
preparing other objects.

U75. Although the wages of these two very considerably reduced my
fixed salary, which owing to uiy sickness, had already become a minus
quantity, I could have barely carried out half my instructions without
their assistance. As already mentioned Dr. Echlin took the place of
Walton the artist who had become home-sick, while Mr. Superintendent
King who was in charge of the Barima and Waini Rivers District, re-
ceived orders from the Governor to join us so that through his media-
tion my brother should be rendered every possible assistance on the part
of the Indians.

IV.

Expedition to the mouth of the Orinoco — Mouth of the Waini — Sand-
1)ank — Mora — Barima — Warraus — Ciunnka villayc and its environs—
Commencement of the rainy season — First trip to the virgin forest—
Chiyocs — Bete rouye — Month of the Barima and Orinoco — Return to
Cuinaka — Halrits of the Sloth — Arawak chief Caltcralli — River
A r uka — Amacura — Religious Beliefs, Manners and Customs of the
Warraus — Journey up the Barima — Flora and Fauna of the river
basin — Akawais — First appearance of primitive rocks.

276. Thus the day of departure ever drew nearer and kept us all the
more occupied as we still had many a thing to think of, and much to
worry over that we had postponed to the very last moment. While-
my brother purchased what he wanted wholesale, I had to get mine re-
tail when, like a prudent housekeeper, I never dared let out of my sight
my working capital that had dwindled down to a minus quantity: —
and yet in this noisy excitement, in the continual dread of having for-
gotten this or that, there was something at the same time so satisfactory
and stimulating that it is still a pleasure to call to mind those days re-
plete with petty worries, unnecessary doubts, and fallacious hopes. But
it was all due to the fact of its being my first journey to the interior of
a country Uiat already in its civilised portion had opened quite a new;
world to me.

U77. Xiie whole of the preparations were finally completed and all
purchases effected. Cases and boxes filled with peas, rice, potatoes,
coifee, sugar, and some .North American hams: others with guns, powder
and shot, coloured print, and salempore (a blue light cloth), with knives
01 all sizes, looking-glasses, beads of different colours, fish-hooks, coinb«,
scissors, needles ana pins: barrels and kegs with Is'orth American salt-
fish, pickled beef and pork, vinegar, rum and spirits as well as a few
bottles of wine — everything was ready and waiting to be put on board
the big schooner "Home" which had to take us to the mouth of the
Waini or Guiania in the Atlantic Ocean. Owing to our lodgings up to
the present being fairly distant from the landing-stage, the transport-
ing did not progress as quickly as my impatience could have wished,
until it came to an end with the last of the astronomical instruments.
278. Morning of the 19th April broke on the whole of our crew,
now in their neat and clean broad white linen trousers and jackets with
red facings and red sashes, who were assembled in front of our house,
the inside of which since the first streak of daylight had become the
rendezvous of all our friends and acquaintances. There was plenty of
joking and chaffing about the deeds of heroism that were promised and
adventures already experienced in advance, while warnings were offered
gratis as regards accidents to come. As a matter of fact, bets were
made on the success or non-success of the Expedition or on the execution
of this or that particular portion of it, for they could not resist their
love of betting even where the future of their friends and associates was
in question.

V. ROTH. del. '

WE START FOR THE WAINI. 81

279. But while the best of humour prevailed inside the house, quite
different feeling's were being expressed outside it. My brother's
boats' crew consisted almost entirely of married coloured men and
negroes, and although the proposed line of route was planned for but a
few months, a number of disquieting rumours relative to the hostile
attitude of the Venezuelans towards the Expedition Imd given rise to so
general a panic that the poor women already saw their men for the last
lime. With the most woeful expostulations they individually and col-
lectively tried to soften their hard-hearted husbands and get them to
turn back while there was still time, and not leave them and their un-
fortunate children in distress: but they, leaning on their oars painted
in various colours, either manfully withstood all tears, entreaties, and
prayers, or else interpolated some coarse expression during a momentary
lull in the squalling tumult, at the same time looking very anxious to
get away, while my genial South German, Stock le, started pitying the
poor wives and tried comforting the children. The heart of my little
boy from Halle also seemed to have become too heavy, because he looked
at me with eyes very far from as saucy as they were before.

280 It was already noon when in the company of our friends and
a large concourse of people we stepped on board the schooner where we
found all cases and barrels stowed away, and the two large corials
wherein we were subsequently to continue our journey by river well
protected oh the deck. With the firing of our ship's cannons and the
repeated hurrahs of the crowds collected on shore, the anchor was
weighed and the sails hoisted.

281. Thanks to a favourable wind blowing, the city with its envelope^
of palms soon disappeared from view: it was only the Lighthouse Tower
that delayed it with its good-bye, until that also followed, when at last
the fruitful stretch of country, the "Arabian'' coast, brightened with
the setting sun, emerged before us in the azure distance and bade us wel-
come. The sudden onset of darkness deprived us only too quickly of this:
glorious sight. The name "Arabian*' coast is a corruption of Arowa-
biecie, the term which the Arawak Indians apply to a small species of
tiger-cat, which is said to have been very plentiful here formerly. On
the other hand it is maintained that the word is a corruption of the
Caribbean Coast, the Caribs having occupied this territory in large num-
bers.

282. Although our voyage along this coast had commenced so aus-
piciously, it became all the more stormy with nightfall : a rough evening
was only to be expected from the black threatening thunder-clouds that
already before sundown had towered over the distant ocean-horizon.
The awful tempest burst of a sudden with a fury that our vessel could
not face. As if storming at the very gates of heaven, the waves with
their sharp-defined edges, momentarily illumined by a dazzling flash of
lightning, soon made her the playball of their fancy and the pilot frank-
ly admitted that he no longer knew his bearings: — a huge shock succeed-
ed by a shaking of the Tessel told us in short that we were stuck
fast upon a sandbank. The storm and savage struggle of the elements
fortunately abated after a while, to be followed by a strikingly contrast-
ed calm which our schooner quite comfortably shared, for she could now
rifle peacefully at anchor.

82 to*s ON A SANDBANK.

283. What the gloomy night had mercifully hid, what the storm and
excited waves had stunned, we discovered at break of day : the whole of
the expedition suffered the pangs of sea-sickness. Firmly chained to the
sandbank we had to remain lying here until one o'clock in the afternoon,
when we were only released without further accident from our involun-
tary standstill with the returning flood.

284. The Arabian Coast along which we now made our way consists,
like the whole stretch of coast-line in general, of alluvial land which
forms on its decomposition an exceedingly fruitful soil. This is luxur-
iantly overgrown with the glistening Rhizophora Mangle, Avicennia
nitida and tomentosa as well as with Laguncularia racemosa and Cono-
varpus erectus Jacq. which with their refreshingly bright green foliage
provide an extremely pleasant fringe to the flat coast-line, but at the
same time contribute a very great deal to its unhealthiness owing to
their peculiar root-branches for the most part being raised above the
surface: the two former block and retain in their labyrinthine ramifica-
tions much of the detritus brought down by the rivers and deposited on
the coast by the tide, where they fairly poison the air with their decay-
ing decomposition.

285. In spite of this harmful influence, the ever fresh green of these
bushes gives the extensive flat lands a really delightful charm, which is
still further increased by the many mingled-coloured flocks of .red ibis,
white egret, rosy-red spoon-bill and beautiful proud flamingo as well as
by numbers of other water birds : it is the loveliest edge for the rich car-
pet unrolling itself behind. With incoming- flood and at eve the count-
less feathered hosts fly back with dire discordant din to the green-leaved
coastal bushes and trees, to wait there for the ebb tide or for the dawn :
it is extraordinary that the different genera then keep completely separ-
ate from one another.

286. On the afternoon of 21st April we reached the mouth of the
Waini and after landing our baggage on a large bank composed of sand
and shell fragments heaped up by the waves, and sending the schooner
back to Georgetown, started to pitch our tent : this was easier said than
done because none of the tent-posts would hold in the soil which was
loose and constantly giving way.

287. After satisfying* my most necessary requirements, I commenced
to examine more carefully the composition of our shifting plot of
2,'round. The extensive elongate bank consisted, as just mentioned, of
an accumulation of sand, shell, and shell fragments which the powerful
current had collected here: the molluscs themselves however had got
lost, already probably on their involuntary journey. Although the real
native country of many of these snails and shells was the Indian Ocean,
the Senegal, China and the South Seas, they must nevertheless also be
forthcoming on some as yet unknown stretch of the Atlantic Ocean, be-
«-ause the current could not have brought them from these situations
here. Thus I found : Marc/inella coerulescens Lam., Natica marochien-
*is Lam., Bmcinum Miga Adans., Dolhnn fasciatum Lam., Nucula ros-
trata, Fusus Mono Lain., PyruU mclon</cna Lam., Purpura cataracta
Lam.

288. It often happens that a resident of the coast when looking of
a morning for some such sandbank upon which perhaps only the day be-

SWARMS or WATER-BIRDS, 83

fore he wa« enjoying a view of the raging turmoil — no longer sees
it. These banks generally disappear just as quickly as they develop,
or their previous contour becomes altered so strikingly that one does
not recognise them again in their altered condition. .With .the incom-
ing flood, the blustering surf seemed as if it likewise wanted to attempt
similar changes upon our perishable abode, a cause for anxiety to which
was soon added the torments of an intolerable heat, because no tree,
not even a shrub, protected us from the scorching and fiery sunshine,
that rendered even the inside of the tent insufferable. Fortunately at
least we were saved the terrors of mosquitoes because every attempted
attack of theirs was repulsed by that true ally of ours, the sea breeze.

289. According to my brother's arrangements we were to remain
here until he had fixed the geographical situation of this spot as ac-
curately as possible : at the same time in conjunction with Mr. Glascott
he wanted to learn how far the bed of the Waini might be navigable.

290. The sandbank offered nothing but a counitless supply of waiter-
birds which, hastening here in swarms of thousands from the coast dur-
ing the ebb, and surprised at our unexpected visit, settled down on the
tar water-side. Amongst them were the glorious flamingoes which
already at a fair distance away might mislead one into thinking a com-
pany of English soldiers was on the march along the shore. Hundreds
of rose-red spoon-bills (Platalea Ajaia Linn.) lustful for robbery but
keeping us all the time in view, were wading through the shallow water-
holes: associated with these and taking similar precautions were long
rows of Ardea lencocjastcr Wagl., A. nlvea Lath., A. leuce 111., and A.
roerulescens Lath., as well as dense crowds of sand-pipers, and snipe
(Charadrius, Numenim, Scolopax}. Outside of these lines the greatest
varieties of duck were rocking themselves on the shapely curved rol-
lers of the lightly moving surf, while enormous processions of scissor1-
bill (Rhynchops) in close rank, flew slowly along immediately above
the surface and ploughed up the water with their peculiarly construct-
ed beaks. With a shot putting an end to these brisk activities the
deafening cackle, scream and chatter suddenly subsided, whereupon the
trees arid shrubs along the shore became temporarily covered with blos-
soms that were foreign to them. For hours together I used to watch
this ever changing struggle, the watchword of which is a continual feud
and strife between and among the different genera : it was only the fear
of my gun that was able to ensure a short armistice which even the
red ibis and white egret when put to rout wilfully misunderstood. It
was peculiar never to see the young birds of the former species flying
with the older ones, but in their own separate flocks, as could be recog-
nised already at a distance, because the grey feathers of the youngster
only changes into the fiery red of the adult during the course of the
third year. The flesh of the young bird being extremely tasty, it con
tinually served as a target for our guns.

291. Though our table was so richly supplied with feathered game,
we never at any time managed to combine it with any nice fish, for
when we threw out our lines we generally caught nothing. The
Analleps tetrophthalmus ("Four-eye") of but little taste, was the only
fish that more than tried to replace this want. It swarms in such im-
mense shoals along the whole coast and bants that when overtaken by

S4< MY ADVENTUBE ON A MUD-FLAT.

the outgoing tide large numbers are left stranded behind on the flats,
whence they make long skips to try and reach the waters' edge now more
and more receding: it is when they are endeavouring to do this that a
considerable number of the flying crowd are caught. I have never met
with the fish in streams beyond the limits of salt water.

292. Our initial superabundance of fresh meat had however soon to
give way to appreciable want, because our never satisfied love of sport
•and spoil had made the feathered visitors to the bank so shy that it
only wanted someone to show himself outside the tent to scare them
back to the main. The tribute which they were no longer willing to
pay carelessly and unstintedly had accordingly to be obtained surrep-
titiously by guile. As soon as the ebb set in, our boats' crews hurried
down to the beach with spades and shovels, to dig trenches where we
regularly took up our position and whence we welcomed with a shower
of shot the hungry guests as they approached. Had it not been for un-
expected and speedy help it is certain that I could easily have lost my
life at one of these hunting shelters.

iHJo. With one exception, all the genera and species comprising our
visitors had already given ine a contribution for my collection.: what I
still missed was the glorious flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) which
in spite of every trick resorted to, never came within shot. Every recent
unsuccessful attempt had made me all the more determined not to rest
until I had succeeded in gaining possession of this obstinate bird also.
As the boats' crews were mostly busy in other ways of a morning, it was
generally at this time that I used to slink away by myself to one of the
trenches, where, often waiting in vain for hours at a time my patience
would finally give way, and another bird have to do penance. And so
to-day after having lain in ambush for several hours — what with the
Hood tide soon getting in and not wanting to come back empty-handed —
I turned my gun on a red ibis which, only being winged, now fluttered
along the mud out towards the sea. Heedless, yet anxious to secure my
catch, I hurried after it, but with every step sank deeper into the mire,
until at last, unable to get forwards or backwards and fatigued with the
exertion of trying to extricate myself, my position became still more des-
perate because it was soon before I could no longer use my arms. With
all my remaining strength I shouted for help, a call that was fortunately
hearcl and followed as quickly as possible by one of the boat's crew, a
negro. Directly he recognised my awful plight, he threw himself flat
on the mud, and by winding and twisting his body sinuously along he
edged himself towards me in a curious fashion without supporting him-
self on his hands save to a very slight extent. Though my own situation
was dangerous enough, my attention and interest was 'so absorbed in this
well -considered manoeuvre that I thought no more about myself until
seized by my smart rescuer who, with similar twists and contortions,
dragged me out of the mud-bath. On recognising the cause of my plight
and spotting the ibis which, fluttering in the meantime still farther out
to sea, had got stuck in similar fashion, my rescuer, tempted by the del-
icate morsel, proceeded to fetch it : he threw himself on his stomach as
before, and with the bird as a reward for his trouble, he returned to lii>
tent, laughing a]j the wav.

IN SEARCH OF FRESH WATER. 85

294. In addition to the terrible heat of the sun to which we were
continually exposed and which so raised the temperature of the sand and
*hell that we could hardly walk or stand on it until the afternoon, we
had been troubled now for some days past with the oppressive want oi!
fresh water. Owing to the action of the washing tide upon the river
waters we could only remedy this from a considerable distance : the boat
that we had despatched had but found it first in the Aruka, a tributary
of the Barima.* The enquiries concerning the navigability of the Waini
did not by any means come up to our expectations, because the mouth
even at the flood, only shows from 12 to 18 feet, a depth which is of
course considerably increased farther up the stream. The sand-bank
lay in 8° 24' 46" lat. N. and 59° 36' long. W.T

295. Having, for some days past now, made the very most of our lit-
tle plot of ground from a natural history aspect, and the want of watev
making it advisable from another point of view to get rid of those of
its consumers who were not required, it was arranged that all members
of the boats' crews who were not wanted for the coastal survey, should; be
despatched ahead in one of the large corials to Cumaka, a settlement of
the Warrau Indians on the bank of the Aruka. Mr. King was appointed
leader, to make necessary arrangements for setting up the second sta-
tion there : I gladly joined him for during the last few days I had been
walking on pins and needles, and the dark distant forest was temptingly
inviting me to come.

296. Thus on the 27th April our small party left the barren shell-
bank that now proved of no further use to me, and hastened to the fresh
luxuriant green, to the forests that were so plenteously and variously
tenanted.

297. Owing to the sea-like expanse of the Waini estuary our late resi-
dence with its swaying flag-staff remained visible for a long while, until
by gaddling strongly we reached the spot where on the Western bank of
the river, apparently at right angles to it, there branches off one of those
curious natural canals which, as I only learnt later, are so peculiarly
characteristic of this extensive stretch of coast. The Mora Creek (Maro-
wan of the Indians) as the Colonists call this junction canal, although
not quite navigable for sailing vessels, nevertheless offers to smaller
sized craft the most convenient waterway between the Barima and th.a
Waini, because at its branching-off from the latter it has a depth of 16
feet and a width of 116.*

298. Our hitherto smoothly-going trip was suddenly upset by the
commencing flood, which at first drove its waters with such force up the
broad Waini mouth and up the Mora Creek, that the steersman (cap-

i . — , — . ____

* When the party was on the sand-bank and sent to the Aruka for fresh water it must
have evidently been to the Mabaruma Creek that they went, half a mile up the Aruka on its
left bank, where the Morawhanna people of the present day still have to go for their drinking
water during the dry weather. (V.R.)

t I located the position of his sand-bank '• at Waini mouth " on the modern map and find
that the spot is now far out to sea and a few miles to the east of the river mouth. (V.R.)

JThe depth of the Waini at its bar remains about the same, but of course the Mora Passage
has considerably widened and is navigable for moderate sized steamers, although some folk
still living remember when a sloop had difficulty in navigating it on account of the number
of trees scattered all over the place. The Barima end of the passage has widened considerably
even within the last three years (V.R.)

86 THE BARIMA RIVER.

tain) had to exercise all his powers and attention to avoid being jambeii
against the huge trees that in certain places rose out of the water in
unexpected confusion : dangers that were still further augmented by the
winding course of the channel. When the ebb set in the same effects
were produced, but in a reverse direction, as the banked-up mass of water
receded at a very considerably increased speed. By his skill and care
our captain had fortunately evaded the dangers of the flood, but on the
other hand it was only with the very greatest exertion that the
strong arms of the crew were ablexto withstand the might of the falling
ebb. The best thing always to be done is to wait until the first force
of the on-coming ebb has spent itself. Large flocks of young ibis — they had
probably been hatched here — were perched upon the shady foliage trees
of the bank and induced us, like prudent housekeepers, to select some of
them for supper : this nevertheless proved more difficult than we expect-
ed, because they always let us come within gun-shot but then flew away
to settle again some hundred paces distant. It might have been quite
an hour that they had been thus driven ahead before we succeeded in our
purpose. At the same time I discovered in the thick leafy canopy of a
tree a snake-neck bird (Plains Anhinga Linn.) which seemed to be taking
a comfortable rest, but soon after lay at my feet in the corial.

299. Fortunately and without further hindrance we reached the exit
of the channel in the Barima, which proved to be a much considerably
larger stream than I had even 'the remotest idea of, as its breadth amount-
ed to at least 700 feet with a depth of 18 to 24 feet. The effects of the
commencing flood-tide upon its dark waves was just as distinctly percep-
tible as it was on the Mora. The banks are quite as low and swampy as
those of the Mora, and we looked in vain for a secure and dry little spoc
at which to land. But what was there to worry over? In front and close
at hand the most luxuriant tropical vegetation was disclosed, and I stood
before the portals of a world of wonders of the novelty and wealth of
which I had never even dreamed.

300. Though the banks of the Mora had already claimed my entire
interest, this was nevertheless very much more increased by those of the
Barima. The loveliest palms, Euterpe oleraoca Mart., Manicaria sacui-
fern Gaert., stretched their proud fronds up above the dark succulent
mass of foliage, and vied with the slender Leopoldinia pulchra Mart,
both in beauty of growth and formation of leaf, while the precious
Vanilla aromatica Sw. (V. c/uiancnsis Splitg.) wound itself in thick gar-
lands up their slim shafts and trunks, and together with the most beau-
tiful Begonias and Passiflora followed the lank columns in a most
variously-coloured mixture, until they finally reached the crowns to form
fairy-like draperies. Meanwhile the lovely Allamanda 'Aulletii Pohl.
and Ruyschia, Surubea Sw., covered the brushwood on the banks with
their large yellow and red blossoms, and the pretity Oncidium Baueri
Lindl. with yellow stalks, forced by rank growth to*a height of 10 or 12
feet, picked upon the trunks of older trees, o-ut of the thickly-leaved
branches of which the scarlet-red flowers of Epidendrum Schomburglcii
Lindl. lighted us up on our way. The last mentioned always put in an
appearance only when the waters of the stream had lost all traces of

The immediate bank enclosed a broad sltrip of Calatiium arbores-
ccns Vent, which here and there was interrupted % whole stretches of

MY FIRST INDIAN SETTLEMENT. 87

Crinum the beautiful whi^e and sweet-scented flowers of which, when
the flood set in, were strewn over the surface of the water in the loveliest
manner possible.

301. The more we widened our distance from the coast, the rarer be-
came the specific coastal vegetation. The Avicennia, Rhizophora, and
the Conocarpus had long disappeared when, just above five miles above
the exit of the Mora into the Barima, we reached the mouth of the muddy
and yellow Aruka: we followed this up to the entrance of its little tribu-
tary stream, the Cumaka, on the banks of which lay the Warrau Indian
settlement of the same name, the temporary object of our journey. We
found its mouth, as later on its whole course, to be so overgrown with
the rankest vegetation, that only a person who had previously satisfied
himself of the fact would ever have thought of looking for a village here.
It was for this reason that Mr. King had all his work cut out to dispel my
persistently recurring doubt in connection with the ever increasing ob-
stacles to our onward progress. Innumerable trees, fallen across the
stream, the clearing up of which often detained us for hours at a time,
made a passage for our larger corial continually most tiresome, while
smaller boats could wind their way through without difficulty. Hardly
a faint ray of light pierced the dense firmly-interlaced boughs and
branches, and no wonder then that a sombre darkness and the deepest
silence should reign here even at brightest noon. The calm was only now
and again disturbed by the flight of the Alccdo supcrbUiosa Linn, and A.
tricolor L. Gm. that were everywhere lurking for prey. As soon as a fish
showed itself on the surface of the water, they rushed upon it with the
rapidity of lightning, and seized it in their long beaks. It wras only rarely
that they missed their mark, which as often as not they had to abandon on
account of its size being many a time beyond their strength. Upon the
trees that had tilted over the stream grew the most lovely orchids, par-
ticularly Maxillaria and the small delicate Rodriguezia while, like fairy-
like misty figures, Acrnaiita Nestor flew slowly over the water in zig-zag
flight, and Acrnauta Leilus, AncMses and Aeneas fluttered along the
brush-wood of the banks.

302. My wTish to be able to pace the first Indian settlement at last
seemed on the way to fulfilment when, exhausted and tired, we reached
an open spot where several canoes were to be seen : it was the landing
place for the Cumaka residents whom I notified of our arrival by having
several shots fired. After waiting a long while and no one being seen or
heard we climbed the hillock, that rose directly from the bank to a height,
of about 50 feet, and on the summit of which the village, consisting of
several houses, stretched in front of me, but I searched around in vain
for a single living soul. All was silent, all deserted : it was only Nature,
ever busy, who rested not nor idled. As already stated Cumaka is sit-
uated on the top of a small hilly range which at the same time is regard-
ed as the first rising ground inwards from the coast whence it extends far
away into the westward. The soil consists mainly of a hardened clay,
mixed plentifully with portions of ochre, upon which rests a quantity
of clayey brown iron-stone and large blocks of mica-schist. The abun-
dance of "stone-marrow"* that is at the same time bound up with it indi-

* The range of hills on which Cumaka stood is composed of Epidiorite and Hornblende-schist.
This weathers into a dark red Laterite with masses of concretionary ironstone and sometimes Bauxite
This latter may be what Schomburgk calls "Steinmark " i.e., Stone-marrow." (E.E.W.)

88 DIRTINESS OF THE W ARRAYS.

cates its being of very recent origin : perhaps of the same age as Cascal-
ho. Schistous syenite seemed to me to crop up in several places close
by, although I cannot make this statement with certainty. From
the flourishing condition of the provision fields in general, as well aa»
from Hie whole surroundings of the village in particular, this soil must
be unusually fertile.

oOl>. The village consisted of twelve simple houses or rather sheds
\\ hich, open on all sides, were thatched with the leaves of Manicaria sac-
cifcra Uuert. and rested upon six posts which again were joined to
gether by cross-beams, onto which the occupants had slung their ham-
mocks, etc. Various cooking and hunting implements stood and lay
freely around in the houses which were naturally regarded by me with
the most intense curiosity.

o04. But however much I might be attracted by this simplicity of
an Indian household. 1 was all the more powerfully repelled on the other
hand by the ghastly filth and uiicleanliness that reigned over the whole
settlement, and completely continued the reproach generally made in
the colony about the dirtiness of the Wai-rail, whose uncleanliness has
become proverbial and where "As dirty as a Warrau" expresses its su-
perlative degree of comparison. The more unpromising and dirtier how-
ever the inside of the houses, the sweeter and brighter did their immed-
iate environs smile on me. A real forest of Musct paradisiaca and M.
mpicntum Linn., Manihot utilissima Pohl (Janipha Manihot H.B.),
Ananas ccliilis. Capsicum, and Carica Papaya Linn, with their yellow
melon like fruits regularly enveloped the settlement, while beaten paths
from the village led in all directions through these thick masses of green
into the equally dense forest which chiefly consisted of Laurineae, Ley-
uminosac Meliaccac, Rhixoboleae, etc., these in their turn hemming in

^ 7 o

the flourishing provision fields.f

305. Among the twelve houses two were especially conspicuous by
reason of their larger dimensions on which account one found favour in
our eyes and was chosen for our quarters. As the need of drinkable water
xvas fairly urgent, but not a single villager was to be seen, we had to
despatch a messenger to the Atopani, a small stream not too far off or:
the bank of which was situate a second settlement where lived the chief
of the lower Aruka Warraus: word was sent to inform him of our ar-
rival and to ask for his company and assistance in regard to our wants.
We occupied the interval in arranging our airy dwelling as comfortably
as we could, our example being followed by the boat's crew in another
house.

T The site of the old village of Cumaka while still going under that name is occupied by
the htie mansion of the manager of the Aruka Rubber Estate, which at present includes the
whole course of the Cumaka creek, up which a large motor-launch plies at all states of the
tide. The virgin forest which sent old Richard into such raptures is all removed and sup-
planted with tame Hevea. The slope of the hill between the landing and the top is the site of
the best-known " kitchen midden " in the district : the proposed public road connecting
Morawhanna with Arakaka will pass right over it. The Attibani Creek, or as Schombur^
calls it the Atopani also has its entire course in the Aruka Rubber Estate and on its banks
rice is cultivated by the estates' authorities. (V.R.)

ENTER CHIEF WILLIAM. 89

306. I was still busily engaged with the unloading of our bout and
transport of the baggage up to the village, when a given signal from
Mr. King called nw* up from the bank to the settlement where, as soon
as I reached the top, the cause of the call explained itself. Several
Indians, led by chief William carrying in his hand the staff of office, tlu'
symbol of his authority, had just arrived and taken up their places in
front of our quarters. This staff as I subsequently learned is to le
found only among the coastal tribes standing in closer relations with
Georgetown, the chieftain receiving it as a present from the Governor.
After Mr. King, who at least was somewhat conversant with the Warrau
language, had presented me, and the first salutation ceremonies consist-
ing of a shake of the hand and the exclamation "Matte''* had been con-
cluded, the savage wished to make me understand that I was welcome,
and then immediately changed the subject to the one dearest his heait
by asking my introducer whether we had "Sopi" (spirits) with us. As
his readiness to help and assist particularly depended upon a satisfac-
tory reply to this question we had to humour him : this was followed with
the best results, for hardly had the Indians emptied their glasses than he
sent one of them away for some drinking water.

307. Chief William was of small thick-set stature, clothed in an old
lorn striped shirt, while his subordinates wore but a coloured apron
around their loins. We learnt from him that the residents of Cumaka
had gone into the forest to build corials. When Mr. King told him that
more strangers would be following in a few days he expressed himself
as uncommonly glad, and assured us that they were all welcome.

308. Our things were now for the first time subjected to the closest
scrutiny, and question followed after question, every single one closing
with the refrain "Have you got much spirits with you?'' to which the
sight of the barrels with salted meat and the like may have prompt-
ed them. The fancy picture I had painted of an Indian settlement was
certainly not realised here among these villagers, whose dirt and notice-
able but futile craving for liquor entirely corresponded with those of the
isolated individuals whom I had already had occasion to notice in
Georgetown. The infinite delight and pleasure that Mature had granted
me on the one hand in a much more superabundant measure than I had
expected, I felt doubly or trebly minimised in connection with these peo-
ple. After satisfying his curiosity, and on his departure asking for
another glass of spirits, the chief left us with the promise to return on
the following morning.

309. The unloading and fixing up of our things were soon completed,
the latter not robbing us of much time, it being only necessary to fol-
low the hint unconsciously given us by the Indians in the arrangements
of their households, and now content and self-satisfied we gazed upon
our work. It was yet with feelings of greater hankering and gratifica-
tion that we gazed upon that of our busy and always smiling negro,
Hamlet, wet with perspiration, who during our labours had lighted a
thoroughly good fire on which he had placed the requisite number of

t • " ' ii

* A tig live, Mate, Matey.

90 DAWN IN THE TROPICAL FOREST.

pots as became his business of duly-appointed cook. The fellow had
just returned with a supply of roots and vegetables appropriated from
the provision fields with a view to serving up the very daintiest of dish-
es with the ample means now at his disposal. Ever since leaving Dein-
erara I had never seen his black face beaming so happily : he was very
lucky, with nothing to worry over, but only to pick and choose : he was
surrounded on all sides 'with abundance and his conscience was easy : any
scruples about mine and thine did not seem to overburden him. What
his joyful sparkling eyes and his widely smirking mouth gave promise
of was soon performed, for out of the spoil of birds that had been
shot and the yams and Carica pditaya, etc., purloined, he prepared an
excellent meal to which the whole company did full justice : we several
times wished that the poor fellows who had been left behind on the sand-
bank could have partaken of it.

310. After Hamlet had bravely taken every care that not the slight-
est morsel should be left, we jumped into our hammocks to learn now
what it \vas like to sleep in an Indian settlement.

311. The sun had just risen when I awoke but thought I was still
dreaming. Was I lying in one of the dirty Warrau houses on the Aruka
or had I been transported during my deep death-like sleep to one of the
fairy gardens of the Thousand and One Nights? Thousands of voices
in the most varied cadences fell upon itfy ear, died away in the far dis-
tance and neared again, became blurred in one another and then became
distinguishable once more. Momentary silence followed a shrill out-
burst of the united singers, to be now interrupted by an initial chirp and
buzz at first hardly perceptible that gradually became louder and louder
until it burst forth in truly joyful wantonness. Just as my ears had
listened in wonder at the notes, so did my gaze feast with real delight
on the environs of the village lit up with the virgin sunbeams whence
thousands upon thousands of dew-drops glistening at me like diamonds,
finally found their ruin in the vital power and energy that was displayed
by the Heliconiae, Musaccae, Marantaceae and Uraniae overladen with
blossoms. The eye that was yet admiring the flower a moment before
saw a topaz swaying over it during the nex!t without being able to ac-
count for its presence, until as quick as thought it trembled and twinkled
over the floral flnery at another spot. On turning my more than .satis-
fied looks elsewhere to another tree, the same illusory and rapturous per-
formance was being repeated : here they fell upon a lovely ruby, there a
glowing drop of gold or the thousand-fold reflecting sapphire, until
finally all these twinkling, flying, fire-specks joined to form a most beauti-
ful garland, but suddenly separating again, started their previous puz-
zling performance.

312. As for the humming-birds, though I had often in Demerara
watched the lightning flight of these lovely creatures and amused myself
for hours at a time with their restless activities, when like evening revel-
lers (Sphinx] they momentarily swayed over the blossoms of the plants
and trees to suck the honey and suddenly disappeared only to emerge else-
where, or when, like glowing sparks, on starting to quarrel and fight
they crossed the air from all sides and directions in thousands of turns —
I had never hitherto seen so great an assemblage of them in so small an

INDIAN PKOVISION FIELDS. 91

area. In this swariu the Trochilus mellworus Linn., T. campylopterus
Linn., T. moschatus Liim., T. furcatus Linn., the tiny pretty T. pyyniaeut;
JSpix., T. Mango Linii., and T. petasophorus Pr. Max. were particularly
noticeable. Diminutive and beautiful as these birds are, the different
species are nevertheless equally as quarrelsome amongst themselves. On
dissection I found plenty of small insects in their crops.

313. And still the enchanting early morning life had not yejt reached
its close. I soon recognised in the distance the squalling notes that Avert-
gradually approaching— thousands of shrieking parrots were flying over
the environs of the village to some place or otuer that they knew of witli
plenty of food : the Paittacus aestivus Linn, opened the ball, while the
pretty little P&ittacus nuchalis and P. melanocephalu's Linn, were already
settled on the trees of the provision fields.

314. I did not stay any longer in my hammock: with a good jump 1
was out of my swing- bed, and quickly seizing a weapon the next few
minutes found me already strolling around the outskirts of the settle-
ment. The virgin forest joined close on to the provision grounds. The
small beaten path that I followed soon led me to a second cleared space,
the cassava field of the residents : this might have enclosed about three
acres and consisted of a most flourishing growth of Manihot atUissinia
Pohl., which, although planted irregularly anil without order, reached
in general a height of 6 to 8 feet. Here and there the D'uworva bulbi-
fera Linn., D. sativa Linn., as well as Convolvulus Batatas Linn. a,nd
Pine-apple crept into, and hemmed in this forest of Manihot which
amongst all Indians takes the place of our cereals. Th« root, a tuberous
growth, contains when fresh a pungent juice containing Prussic acid
which nevertheless, after grating and pounding, is separated under strong
pressure. ,,, The Indians also cultivate the Dioscorea and ConvolculiCs
Batatas on account of their abundant starchy contents.

315. Although the attention paid to such fields is not exactly
of the best, their growth had collectively reached a perfection that sur-
prised me. Sugar-cane and maize were in plenty, and the Pine-apple,
taken on the whole, especially here vindicated its name of "Queen of
Tropical Fruits." We were subsequently brought some that weighed from
ten^to twelve pounds and were MS remarkable for their juiciness as for
their fragrance.

316. The soil consisted of a fatty clay mixed with ochre, rotted tim-
ber and ashes, because on laying out a field the trees are every time fell-
ed and burnt. The largest giants that the fire cannot destroy remain
lying \vhere they are felled and become disintegrated in time. Rambling
through such a field is therefore far from being a pleasant promenade,
l>ecause one must be climbing continually over one tree trunk after
another if one does not want to proceed in a perpetually serpentine
course.

317. The roots of the Manihot reach complete maturity only after
ten or twelve months, on which account one finds in every provision field
a. complete arrangement of series varying from the full-grown plants to
the suckers, that have just been put in. As soon as the full-grown plants
have been pulled out and the tubers removed, the stalks are cut into
"sticks" two or three feet long, three or four of which are again planted
in a hole. This done, any further care is left to Nature, except that they

92 FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN VIRGIN FOREST.

are now and again cleared of the rank-growing weeds. If an entirety
new field is to be opened, the planting is also done with "sticks" : the
soil is only loosened somewhat in the spots where they are stuck about
one foot deep in the ground. The Indian however lays out such ne>v
plantations only a short time before the heavy rainy season.

:U8. All the pictures my imagination had painted in anticipation of
the impression a virgin forest would make on me sank like faded shadows
into insignificance before the sublime Keality that disclosed itself on
entering it. In mute delight I stood in front of the mighty giants that
had seen hundreds of years pass by, and yet with the same unimpaired
vital powers were pressing their trunks to heaven and their far-reaching
branches to every point of the compass. Huge L,ecythw with ungainly
"root-necks" (icHrzelhtihcn), Lintrineav, Jjey-untinvsae, the giant
IJymenaea Conrbaril Linn., Carapa yuianenfiis Aubl., Couratari yuianen-
ais Aubl., Mimosa yuiancnxi* Aubl., Goupia ylabra Aubl., and Bomba.v
tjlolosum Aubl. were striving to fight for every free inch of space. They
were all bound and tangled together with lengthy bush-ropes that cross-
ed each other like ships' tackling, and the bush ferns were so matted and
interlocked with countless Biynoniacea-e and Convolvulacea-e, that all
ihese rank growths had to be destroyed before a way could be forced in
between them. When T turned to look up at the trunks and branches
there smiled at me through the semi-obscurity prevailing over the whole
forest, fresh tumid mosses and lichens, pretty Terns, most beautiful
Orchids and Aroids, the white or greenish aerial roote of which almost
reached down to earth, and numbers of magnificent Tillaridsiae with
their lovely scarlet-red flowers.

.°>19. The further I followed the Indian trail the thicker became the
vegetation for which reason I did not venture to stray far without a
i»-uide. The noiseless repose was only here and there disturbed by the
Indian ravens (Psittacu* Ararainta and Macao Linn.) as they flew out
of the thickly leaved branches of the Leyuminosae in the long pods of
which they had already found their breakfast and. now interrupted by
me, were swarm ins with deafening1 noise around the nooks from which I
could be seen. All of a sudden, a much shriller scream, coming from an
immense Cam pa, made me forget my resolution about not wandering off
the path. Taking everything at the jump I hurried to the tree where
I found a whole collection of Falro nudicollix Daiid. The ear splitting
din was usually started by one of the company, the others then joining
in chorus: their note differs entirely from that of other species of fal-
con. Xot far from this noisy throng was perched a much quieter party of
beautiful Falco furcatns Linn., while others of the same species were
swaying in broad circles round their restful mates.

320. With iny curiosity satisfied, I hurried back to the path that soon
led me from the hill down to a swampy valley through which.. the Cumaka
was running its slow course. The vegetation had assumed another char-
acter. The foliage trees had disappeared, their places being taken by
the loveliest palms, Manicaria saccifcra Gaert., Euterpe olemeca
Mart., Maxiwiliana reyia. Mart., and Oenocarpus liataua Mart,
the enormous trunks of which almost seemed to have exercis-
ed a damaging effect upon their more diminutive relatives loit-
ering closer to the ground, because the undergrowth was entirely

WABRAU PHYSIQUE. 93

wanting: only ferns, Avoids, Scitawineae, Marantaccac, and JUusaccac
covered the surface, climbing Aroids and the Besleria coccinea Aubl.
embraced the bases of the palms, while the broad-leafed Pothos dotted
the densely- wound columns with their white flowers. More towards
the neighbourhood of the stream there grew a many-coloured mixture of
different species of Dracontium, ttacopa aquatica Aubl., Psychotria viol-
acca Aubl., and Itapatca paliidosa Aubl. which were interspersed with
delicate groups of Rpennera- aquatica Mart., Lisyanthus coerulescens
Aubl., and the Tocoijcna longiflora Aubl., with long red blossoms. A
continuous rain trickled from the leaves covered with Jungermanniae
and a heavy musty layer of air rested on the moist and slippery soil.

321. Feeling fatigued with all these potent impressions, I now has-
tened back to the settlement where a new surprise awaited me, for not
only had all the villagers returned from their labours in the forest, but
Indians from the nearest situate settlements had also gathered here
during my absence. The scene in front of me was remarkably lively.
Some standing in groups, others squatting on their heels, the men sur-
rounded the house I occupied, where our baggage, cooking utensils, etc.,
seemed to furnish them with subject for conversation, while at some dis-
tance away stood the women and children with a number of tame monk-
eys, parrots, clogs, hammocks and fruits, their articles of trade.
Although as already mentioned I had seen many a single Indian in
Georgetown, I nevertheless experienced a peculiar sensation when, on
first stepping out of the forest, I noticed such a number of reddish-brown
naked figures : it was an impression in strong contrast to the one I had
just received.

322. The Warrau Indians are almost generally of small stature : the
men from four to five, the women seldom over four feet high: closer ex-
amination gives no practical proof whatever of any external powerful
appearance because they are anything but muscular. The size of the
head stands in very inharmonious relation with that of the body which
remains still more strikingly pre-eminent as regards the long trunk and
short legs: still, their beautiful sleek black hair, and their well-formed
legs and thighs in every case distinguish them essentially from the
African race. The face, owing to the strongly projecting cheek-bones is
apparently broad, the forehead low. The pigment of the eyes appeared
to me to be generally black. The eye-slits are raised somewhat at their
outer angles towards the temples, without the forehead however being
so compressed as the negro. In this connection they seem to me to form
rather an intermediate link between the Europeans and the Africans.
The bone at the root of the nose is somewhat depressed and the nasal
cartilages flat. I found their teeth entirely bad on the whole and tooth-
ache seems to be common. The ears are small and neat, the nock is
short and strong, the chest of the men is broad, while the breasts of the
women, as soon as they have borne children, hang like sponges. Hands,
feet, and ankles, especially in the females, are generally so delicately form-
ed that they would serve as models to any artist. The black, sleek, shiny
and thick hair, with both sexes hangs dishevelled over the shoulders.
The chin of the men as well as other portions of the body which in Eur-
opeans are screened with hair, were with them covered by a fine soft
down, which nevertheless both men and women sought to destroy by

91) PREMATURE PUBERTY AND DECLINE,

out-rooting. The eyebrows are also subject to the same procedure, after
which the skin, both here and at the corners of the mouth, is tattooed
with several curved lines, which, particularly amongst the females, seem-
ed to be generally customary, and gave them a characteristic though not
uninteresting appearance.

323. The whole facial expression of the women and girls had some-
thing melancholy, but infinitely gentle about it. The young girls were
commonly of buxom build, while the older women by contrast presented
a more repulsive aspect. When the female reaches her twentieth year,
the bloom of her life is spent : the former symmetry of her individual
limbs and figure has disappeared, the elasticity of all her movements has
given way to a certain indolence, and in place of a vitally fresh and robust
fulness there appears on particular parts of the body an accumulation of
fat which makes her really loathsome, because no clothing hides the mis-
shapen masses from view. Their premature development and pubertr
may be one of the chief reasons for this rapid decline, since the girls are
mostly already married by ten years of age.

324. Their pronunciation is very clear, except thaft the particular
words and syllables have nothing pregnant and sharp about them, but
being drawled, merge into one another.

325. The majority of the people collected here were suffering from
inflammation of the eyes: indeed, many had almost completely lost their
sight on this account: according to my belief their dirtiness and squalor
together with the swampy and marshy soil are to be mostly blamed for
the evil.* Besides affecting certain of the adults, a no less pitiful appear-
ance presented itself amongst a number of children in particular, whose
feet and buttocks were covered with awful boils as a result of which the
extremities in some of the cases were deformed into real club-foot. Upon
enquiring into the cause of the disfigurement I learnt that the sores wer<»
due to chigoes, a small species of flea, Pule.v penetrans, which very gen-
erally at night digs itself under the nails and skin of the foot and there
lays its eggs: if within a few days their removal is neglected, the worst
kinds of ulcer immediately arise from the slipping out of the wormlike
maggots which proceed to dig themselves farther in for a while. From
the fact of these pests choosing not only the foot but also the breech
for depositing their eggs, the greatest number of the Warrau youngsters
bear mournful testimony of their parents' neglect and dilatoriness. I
have never noticed such marks upon the children of other races.

326. On nearing the group I was not a little taken aback at the
panic to which my appearance gave rise among the women, children,
monkeys, dogs, and parrots: everybody at first sought to escape while
the men, pressing impetuously around, offered me their "trade," amongst
which were particularly noticeable the PsiUacm pulverulcntus Gm.,
wrongly named "Amazon Parrot" by the Colonists, the P. ac*tiru* Linn.
*> ' • • • — __^^___ — _ — _ — _ _ — . — __

* These inflammations of the eye, blepharitis, conjunctivitis, corneal ulceration, etc., due
to infection with the pyogenic organisms are said to be still common among these tribes, as
well as the boils described on the feet and buttocks, known as impetigo. The connection
which the author traces between these conditions and the dirtiness and squalor of the sur-
roundings is well-founded. It is a little difficult to say what SchomTmrgk means by " real
club-foot." Infantile paralysis, the most common cause of "club-foot,'' is rare among the
natives ; he probably refers to deformities due to. contraction of scqr-tissue after extensive
ulceration. (F.G.R,)

CAMP LIFE AMENITIES. 95

which above all o'thers is abundantly plentiful on the coast,
and the lovely P. accipitrinus Linn. .When angered, the last
mentioned is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful of parrots
for then the brilliantly coloured feathers at the back of its head
bristle up to form a regular circle round it: the Colonists call it the
Hia-Hia, which word exactly resembles its note. The largest portion
of the crowd of people demanded spirits in exchange, only a few wanting
knives, beads, cloth or money. Unable to satisfy the wishes of all of
them, I only bartered for a few fruits leaving the remainder to the occu-
pants of the settlement who, immediately after my refusal, started bar-
tering with them.

327. Our own chief William who had reached here with his whole
harem, pack and baggage, evidently wanted to keep us company during:
our stay, because he had already fixed himself up in one of the adjoining-
houses. After I had withstood the first assault, put down my gun and
settled myself in my hammock, he forthwith appeared at the head of his
four women and placing them in front of me, asked at the same time for
a glass of spirits for each one. I had not the slightest intention of com-
plying with the request until I yielded to the earnest representations of
Mr. King, who was apparently well acquainted with the character of
these people and earnestly warned me not to forfeit the man's good graces
by a refusal.

328. Bad example corrupts good manners likewise here, while jeers
and jibes can always upset the best of resolutions. William's Wiree older
women, after the style of their lord and master, emptied their glasses at
one pull: only the youngest, who could hardly have been ten years of
age, yet notwithstanding was daily expecting her confinement, resisted it
in the sense that after but sipping the glass she put it aside under the
liveliest signs of aversion, until the contemptuous scoffs and mocking
laughter of the three other fellow- wives forced her to take it np again
and make one draught of it.

329. In all the houses of the village the women were now kept very
busily employed — the provisions that had been eaten during their stay
in the forest had to be restored and the earthen vessels that had got
broken replaced by others, while the activity and bustle attendant on the
preparations for baking bread clearly indicated that the supply had fal-
len very low. Here squatted one party of women who scraped the
knobby roots of the Manihot, while another rubbed those already cleaned
upon a European grater that had been beaten out flat and nailed onto a
small piece of board, while others again were returning from the provision
fields laden with the tubers they had just pulled. Some were manufac-
turing dishes and pots off-hand out of the clay which the environs of the
village supplied in large quantity. The hunting and fishing implements
as well- as a number of other household requisites, 'the hammocks and
the crockery that the occupants had taken with them into the forest,
were either already hung up again in their original places or else were
still being used.

330. After the women, providing for Life's requirements, had grated
a sufficient quantity of Manihot, it was forcibly stuffed into an eight to
nine foot long cylindrical resilient tube ( Arupa) plaited out of a species
of CtalaHteQ: The apparatus, which during the filling becomes consid*

96 MANUFACTURE OF CASSA.RIF?.

erably shortened and widened, was then slung by its upper loop onto one
of the house-beams: on the other hand a long staff was passed through
the lower loop up to more than half its length, its shorter end being
caught under a strong peg that had been wedged into the ground previ-
ously. Two or three women thereupon placed themselves at the longer
end and forced it down with all their might, so that the yielding and
shortened cylinder, owing to the pressure, gradually became longer and
longer. All the watery and poisonous contents of the tubers, which the
forcible stuffing had not separated as yet, were now completely express-
ed, collected in a large pot, thickened by long boiling and evaporation
:ind seasoned with a strong proportion of Capsicum. All the poisonous
constituents are volatilised during the evaporation and the juice thus
thickened used as sauce for meat. If an animal of any description
should partake of only a small quantity of the fresh juice, violent con-
vulsions are set up shortly afterwards, these increase in virulence more
and more, at the same time that the whole body becomes considerably
swollen, both symptoms finally ending in death. The "pepper-pot" of
the Dutch colonisits celebrated for the past hundred years depends for
its chief ingredient upon this sauce, into which the meat left over is
thrown after each meal : fresh Cassarip ( the name of this thickened
sauce) is now and again poured over it. The greater the age of such o
pot, the greater the store set on it: the one belonging to a Dutch family
must have been therefore a real gem, which the housewife had known
how to keep unspoiled and of course also uncleaned for thirty years.

331. After the women had squeezed out the juice completely, the
mealy mass was rubbed by others through a jsort of sifter and strewn
onto a large iron plate heated by a fire kindled underneath, and baked
to a cake. The griddles for this purpose are manufactured in England
and sold in the Colony to the coastal tribes.

332. liolling and tumbling about in the dirt in front of the houses
the children were cutting the most ridiculous capers and grimaces and
would run shrieking and yelling into the arms of their busied mothers,
as soon as I or any of my companions made a show of approaching
them. To the devilish noise of the little goblins was added every time
that of numerous yelping and starved dogs crouching alongside the
women, when a kick or a blow on the part of their strict mistress with
the first convenient piece of household furniture drove them howling
and whining to a distance. The housemasters lay rocking and dang*
lino: in their hammocks and watched their plagued and weary .women
with the utmost indifference and complacence.

333. The rest of the time still left to us in Cumaka was just as lively
and animated as at first. Every succeeding day brought fresh strangers
attracted partly by curiosity and partly by the wish to trade. The
news of our arrival must have been spread broadcast unusually fast be-
cause the village was soon transformed into a regular encampment.
The houses were no longer able to hold the total numbers of strangers
who now had to sling their hammocks in between the neighbouring trees
and set up their travelling hearths close by. My brother's arrival with
the remainder of the expedition increased the excitement still further

renewed all those deafening scenes again,

A WARRAU BUCKEEN.

TROPICAL THUNDER STOKMS. 97

334. The weather now assumed an essentially different character
and all signs indicated clearly and distinctly the commencement of the
heavy rainy season. The intensely blinding sheet-lightning, that for
several nights past had changed the whole vault of Heaven into a fiery
hemisphere, uo\v gave way to horrible thunderstorms during which huge
masses of water fell to the accompaniment of the most awful thunder-
claps that were really enough to upset one's senses. This terribly grand
phenomenon repeated itself almost daily; generally in the afternoon
and night, more rarely in the hours before noon. Its immediate out-
break on every occasion is preceded by a loud hollow rumbling and rust-
ling in the upper layers of air through which it seems as if the Wild
Huntsman were coursing with all his untamed throng let loose: the
lower layers rest in a peaceful calm, not the tremor of a leaf
betraying the uproar already burst, that soon will be blustering over
extensive areas with ungovernable fury. The riot and the re vein'
gradually drop lower and lower — the upper branches of the huge tree*
are already smiting one another in wild confusion, and their supple tops
either give way to the impact or else the mighty giants are uprooted,
and crashing heavily to earth in between their yielding brethren tear
down all the smaller trees and bushes in their fall. The most terriblo
gale, of which the northerner has no conception, sweeps over the plains,
mountains, and valleys like a fretting and fuming whirlwind while tho
partial darkness in which Nature becomes enveloped is momentarily
broken and torn asunder by the quivering fiery lightning. An uproar
like this often lasts for hours at a time, when the rain that falls gen-
erally amounts to between two and three inches

335. Though the weather had become so unsuitable for further ex-
cursions. I nevertheless made up my mind to take a trip with an Indian
guide into the interior of the virgin forest, an intention that would have
been carried out already had not my brother's absence restrained me:
his arrival had to be awaited, as, owing to the number of Indian strangers.
I did not consider it safe to leave the camp at any time for Ions:.

336. Supplied with a gun, plenty of ammunition, the provisions most
necessary, and accompanied by an Indian, I set out on my trip. The
heavy rains had stamped a new and livelier character on the whole of
Nature and promoted the development of myriads of insects. The
bush and undergrowth were in some places so completely covered with
glistening beetles (Buprcstis], Cmsidea, Curculio and different,
species of Hemiptera, that one could hardly see the greenery of the
leaves. Where they had left a bush or a plant free it was taken pos-
session of by innumerable Cicadac of the most strange and peculiar
shapes but which took to flight at a bound immediately any of us came

near.

337. The richer the representation of lower forms of animal life the
more impoverished became my herbarium because our surroundings:
soon consisted of nothing but dense virgin forest, out of which the un-
dergrowth had been completely crowded, and where besides only a few
of The giant forest trees happened 'to be in blossom. What the vege-
tation denied, the insects and feathered residents supplied to the full,
particularly the Herodii and RJiampkastidae (herons and bigbills).

98 BIRD LIFE or MV SURROUNDINGS.

Among the former family I only mention the beautiful heron Ardca
Agami Linn, that most frequently was to be seen solitary on the banks
of the small forest streams, in the deepest shadows of the overhanging
trees : this species is undoubtedly the most beautiful of the genus. The
brilliant ash-grey feathers hanging down from the back of the head,
over the neck and upper portion of the wings, as well as the peculiarly
crooked plumage of like colour over the tail, give the bird, so staid and
self-conscious in all its movements, quite a peculiar charm. A few
specimens that I shot here seemed to correspond entirely with the Agami
so far as plumage was concerned, but the beautiful feathers behind the
head and over the tail were wanting : I took these for young males. Th<»
female has a very unassuming brownish plumage. I found these beau-
tiful birds only on the Barima, Aruka, and Amacura. The Ardea tigrina
Gm., and A. "brasiliensis Linn, had also chosen these forest rivulets as
favourite resorts though they were met with subsequently on almost all
the rivers of Guiana. It was something funny to watch these lanky
legged birds continually extending and retracting their long feathery
necks ns they waded along the water's edge, or to see them with
drawn-in heads perched on the thickly leaved trees of the river side. Their
flesh is very nice and has no trace of an oily or fishy flavour.

338. Among Rhamphastidaef I found Rhamphastus erythrorhynclim
Linn., R. vitciliniis Linn, and Ptcroylossus pipt'rii'orus as .well as P.
viridis particularly plentiful here, where they had been attracted pee-
liaps by the ripe fruits of various trees. Ko family has at any time been
blamed really more wrongfully than this for eating the eggs and young
of other birds, for it absolutely lives only on fruits, while the beaks of
rhe three largest species R. erythrorhynchus, R. vitellinus, and R. Toco
would prove still more unsuitable for eating flesh. In rainy weather,
they usually perch on the trees and let their peculiar note, that imi-
tates the jingle of the syllables pia-po-o-co — on which account the Vene-
zuelans name the bird Piapoco — resound through the forest all day
long : otherwise, it is only of a morning and evening that they especially
make a point of doing this. They build their nests in hollow trees, and
like parrots fly only in pairs : I have never seen them togefther in mobs.
When scared from off the trees where they have found ripe fruitss, the
individual pairs part company every time. They were gladly welcomed
at our table.

339. The glorious Trogon (Trogon melanopterus Sw.) of a lustrous
metallic plumage, immediately after sunrise as a rule lets its wailing
Wow-Wow note be heard through the silent forest from out of the Ficus
trees on which it generally perches in company with the different species
of Ampeli* (Cotingas). The nest exactly resembles that of the wild
pigeon. No bird gave me so much trouble when being skinned because
even with the greatest care it hardly ever happened to come off un-
damaged : the skin is so delicate that even if the bird when shot falls
from the tree and in falling touches a twig or crashes onto the hard
ground, it becomes useless for stuffing. Among small feathered folk
whole swarms of representatives of the Tanayradae and Sylviadae were
particularly in evidence of a morning and afternoon: they flew through
the forest from tree to tree, searching for larvae and insects on the barl?

THE PLAGUE OF CHIGOES, 89

of the branches and flats of the leaves. Those that I noticed most fre-
quently were Tanagra cayana Linn., T. ocliropygos, T. nigerrima L. Gm.,
T. Java pa Linn., T. olivascens Linn., tiylvia cyanocephala Lath., Tacliy-
pftonus versicolor d'Orb. 1 also often came across the pretty little Guiana,
songsters Euphone violacca and E. rufiventrw: just as often the dainty
Nectarinia coerulca 111. and N. cyanea 111. and associated with them,
several small species of woodpeckers; Dcndrocolaptes guttatus Licht,
was never wanting in such a gathering. If a little brushwood made its
appearance here and there, one could be assured of finding the Hokko
hen (Crax alector Tern.), the Jaku (Penelope cristata Tern.) and the
small species P. ma rail and P. pi pile Lath., and P. Parrava Tern, as well
as the Crypturus Tao and C. variegatns. The two last mentioned are
most excellent poultry, far surpassing Cra.v and Penelope in taste. The
large blue eggs of the Penelope are just as palatable: these are laid in
a cavity in the ground where one generally finds from six to seven in
the nest. The red eggs of Cn/ptnnis variegatus are not quite so big as
those of a fowl, but as toothsome as that of the C. Tao. With plenty of
spoil I returned with my companion to Cumaka next day.

340. For some time past I had experienced at night a continual
itching and burning sensation, especially in the toes and under the soles
of the feet, but had paid no attention to it hitherto, as I generally started
on my outings directly at daybreak : it soon increased however to such
an extent one evening that I got a coloured man to examine my foot
next morning and was not a little surprised when he assured me that
a whole mass of sandfleas (Pulex penelrans] were buried in the parts
affected. I immediately had to submit to the painful operajtion of hav-
ing 83 specimens extracted within the course of half an hour, and I
still call to mind with a cold shudder those minutes when at last, on
the soles being cleared, the nails had to be cut to pieces in the spots
where the insects had settled.* The burrowing of the vermin is not
taken notice of at all, because the slight itching, with which it commences
its burrowing, cannot disturb one's deep sleep after a vstrenuous day.
It is only after the first 48 hours that marked inflammation is set u'p,
when one finds in the painful places a bluish spot about the size of a
pea. This is the egg-capsule in which generally hundreds of eggs are
found already laid. The worm-like maggots slip out unusually quickly
and continue the boring operation commenced by the mother, unless
prevented doing so by being extracted. So long as I yet remained free
from the plague, I had often had to smile at the gruesome grimaces
noticeable each morning Avhen, on interrupting my outing, I went over
to the Indians' houses where the whole adult family, squatting around
on the ground, would be examining their feet from all points of view to see
whether the sharply-pointed little pieces of wood or the knife was r<;
quired. Even the poor dogs were plagued most unmerciful! y with
chigoes, which also in their case bury themselves in the soles and make
it practically impossible for the animals to run. If a pitiful mistress
is not to hand, which is never the case with War-ran women, for they
do not even possess sufficient motherly love to keep their little children

* The orthodox Indian practice is to take a pin or needle, pick away and turn aside the
superficial a,nd surrounding skin, and then squeeze out the capsule in its entirety. (Ed.)

100 BETES ROUGES REINFORCE THE CHIGOES.

free from the pest — and the men consider it beneath their dignity to
relieve the tormented creatures of their trouble — the miserable yelping,
whining and whimpering beasts can generally be seen tearing and
biting away at their paws.

341. The favourite resort of these vermin is in the Indian houses,
especially when built on sandy soil, and it is only by continually keep-
ing this damp that the plague can be somewhat checked, for moisture
appears to be absolutely repugnant to them. Even high boots, and
doubled and trebled socks do not keep them off: they still find their
way in to the toe-nails. Chigoes oftentimes get so much the upper hand
in a settlement- that the residents are forced to abandon it altogether.

342. The adage: "Experience bought is best" found in me an apt
pupil, for from now onwards I never missed having my feet examined
every morning, and on few occasions did it happen that 20 to 30 were
not extracted, this finally reducing the balance of my nails on all ten
toes to practically nothing. Mr. Hancock and good-tempered Stocklc
were plagued to a similar degree as myself: the latter suffered consid-
erable inflammation of the feet at first, this being probably produced by
the continual picking and digging, which made walking quite impossi-
ble. Several negroes and myself soon became fellow-victims and I felt
forced to regret my previous neglect all the more in that it exercised u
considerable influence upon the remainder of my trip.

343. As it never rains but it pours, so also; with our pests at Cumaka.
If the chigoes chose the feet for their recreation ground, another insect
took possession of our privates and certain portions of the abdomen,
where it caused similar trouble. Almosit every grass-blade harboure.i
a species of Acarus, probably of the genus Trombidlum and known by
the general name of Bete Rouge which, sticking on to the person pass-
ing along, make their way to these situations where they just bury them
selves and give rise to an intolerable itching and burning sensa-
tion. On examining such a place one notices under the skiu
an almost invisible little scarlet dot . The insect makes a way into the
skin by means of its long proboscis and generally remains there two
or three days : during this period it gives rise to an unbearable itch and
shortly also to small painful lumps that often proceed to inflame ow-
ing to the considerably increased irritation of the epidermis and the
irresistible inclination of scratching it. The trouble ends only with
the death and dissolution of the little beast. The only remedy we found
effective was lemon juice or spirits with which we rubbed "the spots:
this seemed to kill the insects at once, because the red dot changed every
time into a black one. Only a person who has experienced the awful
plague can have a full conception of the sufferings which of an evening
convert the longed-for hammock into a real Laurentian grill, and of a
day drive the sweat of anguish out of every pore. And finally, in order
that our hands and face should not get off Scot free these were supplied
with myriads of mosquitoes and a large ant J'omera olarata (Formica
tlavata Br.), the whole appearance of which made it look suspicious
enough', its long black body being set with scattered hairs : fortunately
it is always only found isolated on the trees or bushes. During the
course of my short journey I had already come across many an ache and

FEARFUL EFFECT OF ANT BITE. 101

pain, but words indeed fail wherein to describe the suffering that its
bite once caused nie when I inadvertently touched a specimen with niy
right thumb. The excruciating pain was immediately communicated
from the bite to the whole body, and manifested itself most forcibly in
the breast, and above and below both shoulders. Scarcely had a few
minutes passed before I felt as if I were wholly paralysed, so that it
was only with the greatest agony and effort that I managed to totter
towards the settlement, but this I was not in a position to reach. The
pain at the actual wound and the local swelling remained extremely
slight. An Indian who was passing found me lying on the ground
unconscious, and carried me to my hammock where a bad attack of
traumatic fever kept me the whole of the following day. The Indiana
also have a deep horror of these creatures, "but at the same time utilise
them, so I have heard them say, as a remedy for rheumatism : if they
cannot obtain relief from this complaint in any other way, they search
for one of these ants, and fixing it between two bits of wood, let it bite
the painful spot a few times, a treatment which, according to what we
were assured, must be a radical cure for it.*

344. The hitherto prevailing changeful weather with thunderstorms
and rain showers breaking only of an afternoon and at night, had grad-
ually become more settled, because now they took place of a morning
us well. At the same time Fever, the enemy we had been long afraid
of, sneaked into our camp. Several of the boathands were attacked,
among them our chief boat-captain (steersman), which unfortunately
obliged us to remain in Cumaka far and away longer than was and
could be expected.

345. The whole surroundings of the village had now assumed
another aspect : thick mists densely obscured every tree up to noon, and
the morning temperature, already lowered to 71° Fahr., rose again by
afternoon to 80° at most.

346. Just in the same way as we all suffered from the low tem-
perature and saturated atmosphere, so did my collections similarly
succumb to the damaging influences of the weather: this was particu-
larly the case with the dried plants and insects. If for only a single
day I omitted to change the former and supply them with fresh papers
dried in front of the fire, I could be almost certain that on the next I
should find the treasures that had given me so much trouble and danger to
collect all covered with a yellowish mould : preventive measures were
useless for warding off its sudden onset although I smeared all the
seams and chinks in the boxes with resin or other tarry substance. If
every bright and sunny moment was not utilised in exposing my insects
and birds' skins to the open air, the same mould (Eurotium hcrbariorum
Link.) would destroy them also.

347. Owing to his skill and interest Dr. Echlin cured the fever of our
worst patient, the chief boat-captain, sooner than we were justified in
expecting. My brother and Mr. Glascott spent the interval mainly in
determining the geographical position of Cumaka: it was essential for

* This remedy for Rheumatism is still in use among these tribes. Probability jiction is
that of a " counter-irritant," such an effect as a mustard-plaster might prodi

luce. (F.G.R.)

102 ^HE LOWER BARIMA.

the former's further determinations that a definite point in the interior
should now be fixed so that future observations could be connected up
with it. The rest of the time available was taken advantage of by my
brother in looking up the course of the Aruka, for which purpose one of
the Cuinaka residents who understood a little English rendered him
yeoman service. Unfortunately he never succeeded in obtaining.au
accurate astronomical observation although he generally kept awake
throughout the night so as to utilise every star as it should become visi-
ble tli rough a rift in the darkened clouds.

318. The weather showing such a change, and our patients being so
much improved that we could safely risk taxing their weakened powers
again, my brother, in order to help them, hired another six Warraus
under the lead of the chief's son. We all set out with them for the
mouth of the Barima, to examine accurately this portion of the stream
also.

349. As the whole personnel of the expedition suffered from general
weakness, we took only the most necessary articles, everything else being
well packed and left behind at Cumaka.

350. The Barima was soon reached again, and we now followed it
towards its mouth. Immediately below the opening of the Aruka its
banks take on an essentially different character, for they again become
marshy and swampy and are so much exposed to tidal influences that
we could not even find the smallest spot that afforded a firm footing:
the farther we pushed along, the more did the vegetation along the
banks approach that of the nearest stretch of coast-line, the RMsophom
and Ariccnnia already predominating.

351. To make this portion of the river basin suitable for cultiva-
tion, the huge sums that were required for bringing that of the Dem-
erara under similar conditions would certainly have to be doubled. With
every stroke of the paddle the previous flourishing growth of vegeta-
tion became poorer and scantier as the water got more and more salty
till it finally resolved itself into nothing but Rhisophora and Avicennia,
above which pretty clusters of Euterpe oleracea, Lcopoldima, Mani-
caria and Maximiliana towered in isolated spots.

352. The force with which the washing tide flowed up the Barima
made us look for a sheltered place and wait there until the commence-
ment of the ebb. This interruption of the journey that had hitherto
kept us continually on the move was rendered extremely painful owing
to our cramped and inconvenient position seated in the small corials,
as well as to the huge swarms of mosquitoes that mercilessly thirsted
for our blood. Sleep was not to be thought of for a moment owing to
these tormentors, and amidst general rejoicing we welcomed the
receding waters at about 8 o'clock when we resumed our voyage.

353. By oncoming dusk the sky was already lighted up by thous-
ands of shining insects, amongst which the phosphorescence of Pyrop-
horus pcllucidus Esch. was particularly noticeable: the deepest silence
spread itself over our surroundings. Night soon enveloped everything
in its dark veil, but here and there the chirping of the crickets and the
croaking of the frogs showed that the world it hid was not at rest.
These, together with the soft buzzing of mosquitoes and other invisible

tltt CANNY EFFECT OF TROPICAL NlGHT. 103

insects, which would be now and again interrupted by the regular strokes
of our paddlers or the jumping up and splashing of a fish, were still the
only noises to be heard. But soon the unsuspected Life of Night
awoke. It commenced with the hollow suddenly-stopping croak of huge
frogs which the smaller kinds had already prefaced in a weaker degree,
and the wailing notes of Crypturus Tao, C. variegatus, and Eurypyga
JFfeUas 111.: the awful row of the howler monkeys and the shrill notes
of wandering troops of small sackawinkis (CaUitliriw sciurea), enough
to pierce one's very marrow-bones, were being continually added to
these.

354. If Awakening Morn is a magic mirror displaying an aspect oi!
Nature full of sublime surprises and reflecting the most temptingly
beautiful and lovely images, one's inmost soul quails before the terribly
uncanny Tropical Night, which continually keeps it up ,to that pitch
of excitement of which we cannot quite free ourselves even in our lone-
some forests at home notwithstanding they have something so very en-
chanting about them. As with a witch's wand, the confused tumult is
suddenly stilled, no echo betrays the life just passed, and only the con-
tinuous and regular stroke of the paddlers shows that man alone
is not resting along with the other creatures. A noisy hubbub at the
corial's bow means that our splashing has scared away a flock of water-
birds to seek refuge in the tall root-branches of the Avicennia: their
loud cry of fright starts afresh the whole Babel of booming and wailing,
of piping and piercing voices, that has only just been stilled. And
then the moon, casting her magic light through the momentarily-rent
dense veil of cloud, illumines the smooth sombre surface of the water
where the shadows of the river-margins meet, until a moment later, the
whole surroundings are once more plunged in darkness. Just like the
first morning, the first night in a virgin forest will never be effaced
from my memory.

355. Unlike the case at Nightfall, Day-break was not disturbed by any
of those wild thunderstorms. The excited elements seemed as if they
were reposing preparatory . to blustering with renewed strength and
energy, through the whole of nature, shortly afterwards perhaps in one
furious uproar. The morning dawned and shed a peculiar tinge over
the repeatedly broken clouds. The uncanny noises had long been
silenced, and only the distantly-heard gurgle of Penelope cristata,, the
sound of which had so often reminded me of the game we used to play
as children by blowing through a goose's wind-pipe, as well as the artic-
ulate and gloom{y lament of Pionites momota 111. which exactly resem-
bles the words Hutu-lmtu, notified us of the close approach of day. It
is now that the uppermost fronds of the Leopoldinia become tinged and
change with incomparable rapidity from darkish grey to fiery yellow,
the early dawn is broken, the sun has risen and awakened again the
active life already described. Hundreds of Parrots, screeching most ter-
ribly the while, are making their way in pairs over the river, and the
eye revels in the thousand-fold changes of colour which are ever beins
brought into view, as they hurry on in their continued flight : innumer-
able Humming-birds like* scintillating meteors of many a colour, again
flit as quick as lightning from flower to flower and drink the nectar of

104 FLOATING ISLANDS or THE

the fragrant blossoms or sport with the dew-drops that, mirroring a
world in themselves, are trembling on the leaves: the Toucans from up
among the highest tree-tops attract one's attention with theic
'pia-po-o-ko' ; the Orioles, peeping inquisitively from out of their purse-
shaped nests on the branches of the scattered foliage-trees, try their
very best to imitate the different notes audible from far and near, so
that, carried away in the general excitement, they may play their part
in the life just called into being: the red Ibis, with their brilliant plum-
age glittering in the golden sunbeams, fly in one long advancing series
towards the coast, while the white Egrets tarry upon the banks, ri&e
ahead of us, and settle down once more, and so repeat their flight every
few minutes according as they are scared away again.

356. By break of day I had noticed with surprise that the water
had assumed a very strange appearance, in that we passed a number of
floating islands of varying sizes which lent the river as vig-
orous a charm as it did vitality. The first of these floating islands
that hurried past our corial down the stream was eagerly
scanned by me, and on it I found a torn-off mass of matted
grass. During the dry season of the year the rank masses of grass, of
blue Heteranthera reniformis Ruiz, and numerous other water-plants
form a covering over the whole surface of the upper Barima basin : dur-
ing the rainy season these pieces get loosened off by the increased force
of the current, but only a few of them reach the sea, all kept ever on
the move by the opposed effects of ebb and flow.

357. On approaching the mouth, these islands presented a prettier
and livelier appearance. Countless water-fowl, temporarily settling
on them, were busily searching for food, a large quantity of which they
must find in the blue and white flowers of the floating matted grass,
\vhile enormous chains of the large 'Anas moschata Linn, kept them
company with a vigorous cackle. Guns, bows and arrows were hastily
brought into requisition so that noon, now close at hand, might not
find us without the wherewithal for a tasty meal.

358. Towards twelve o'clock we safely reached Barima mouth and
frith it the proud waters of the Orinoco as they slowly rolled along, biU
found ourselves in the same predicament we had experienced the day
previous and the night before. We searched in vain for a small dry
spot, but owing to the whole surroundings being subject to tidal influ-
ence nothing was to be found, until at last some of the Indians managed
(o locate a place on the right bank near Barima Point: it was thickly
covered with spiny Mimosae and Papilionaceae which, owing to the in-
numerable rank creepers, had become changed into an impenetrable and
shapeless bush. All hatchets were soon put into requisition and
within a few hours sufficient space was cleared on which to pitch our
tents, whereupon we started to unload, a task that the high state of
the tide considerably lightened.

359. It was by about evening, after we had just finished unpacking
and put everything to rights, that we noticed a humming and buzzing
which ever became louder and louder. On closer examination we found
it to be due to myriads of mosquitoes which, swarming around the roots
of the Rhizophordj made a rush for us immediately after sundown and,

MOSQUITOES BY BATTALIONS. i05

thirsting for blood, forced their way with whole battalions into our|
tents, even necessitating us to leave our longed-for supper in the lurch.
I had endured courageously many a patient ordeal both in the Colony
and on the journey out already, but not even our Indians could make a.
stand against such an attack as this. Everybody made for their ham
mocks where, wrapped up in them, they escaped the painful stinging to
a certain extent at least, while we Europeans just as speedily fixed up
our mosquito nets.

360. But I hardly knew whether it was more trying outside or in-
side the net because the stifled breathing entailed thereby almost became
intolerable considering the oppressively damp atmosphere. With this
suffocating sensation was now associated the uncanny feeling evoked by
these harpies as they approached and soon withdrew to swarm again all
of a sudden right on the net like a lot of bees : their painful bites never-
theless only too forcibly reminded me that more than one of them, which
continued to attack me without a minute's truce, must have discovered
an entrance, but no exit. Only after midnight did the blood-curdling
music come to an end, and daybreak afforded us some idea of the amount
of blood we had losfc on seeing the fully distended importunate invaders
settled inside the net. It is with inward glee that one looks forward
to early morn after so troublesome a night.

361. This awful plague repeated itself daily at sundown, and often
became twice as bad with approaching storm or rain when the swarms
reinforced themselves into downright thick clouds. After midnight
they hastened back to search the bank-mud among the. intricate roots
of the Rhizophora, the most suitable breeding-place for their develop-
ment.

362. Though plenty of life was stirring along the coast and on th«j,
Waiiii sandbank, the crowds of feathered residents seen here of a morn-
ing, anxious for a feed, were far greater, judging from their size and
plumage, than I had ever observed over there. As the lonely bush to-
wards noon was alive with swarms searching for a shade, I took friend
Stockle with gun and ammunition in the hope of enriching my collec-
tions.

363. Amongst the numerous feathered folk 1 also found for the
first time the dainty Anas autumnalis Linn, in strings of from 16 to 20
birds : the coloured people and Indians have given it the name from its
peculiar piping whistle which, is exactly like the syllables Vis-is-si. I
never saw this species subsequently in the interior.

364. Had we not had Indians with us on the trip many of the birds
we shot would of course have got away, because unless we had both
wanted to risk the danger to which I had already been exposed on the
Waini sandbank ( Sect. 293 ) , we did not dare follow them out on to the
deep muddy mass. To remedy the inconvenience, and at the same time
to watch this oftentimes ridiculous performance of moid-swimming, if
such a term can be applied to the manoeuvre, I always arranged for one
or two negroes or Indians to accompany us. Hardly had a duck or any
other bird, so long as it was: tasty, dropped after being shot, especially
while the ebb was on, than my dusky companions immediately threw
themselves upon their stomachs and, with the serpentine windings

106 FISHING l)ANGEiis.

already described, squirmed their way out over the mud, to usually
some 100 to 200 feet wherever the bird happened to be stuck fast. Often
enough, the mud closed well in over the entire body, leaving only ex-
posed the black head pressing forwards to its goal, or else the bird,
with its last vanishing' effort, took to further flight: nothing however
could tire the eager pursuer, who shortly pushed ahead until he caught
the fugitive in his teeth, and so returned with it to the bank. A sliding
match like this has something so awfully funny about it for a specta-
tor that I have often rolled on the ground doubled up with laughter.

365. The Cancroma, cochlearia (canoe-bill) and lovely sunbird
(Eurypyga Hellas 111.) were just as numerous as the different ducks,
while the brilliant flamingo, dragging its way in a long series high
above us, excited my covetousness afresh but without any success: on
the other hand our fishing was richly rewarded every evening, for we
never withdrew our lines without a catch. A sheat-fish, Bagrus mesopx
Vahl., of moderate size showed itself particularly greedy. I noticed
that whenever the Indians pulled in their line with this fish they
always struck it a heavy blow on the ventral and dorsal fins. As I sub-
sequently learnt on closer inspection, they did this to destroy at once
the peculiar fin-rays that are supplied with small barbs acting as ef-
fective weapons of defence, for if the fisherman imprudently holds the
fish in his hands before these are destroyed, he is sure to get damaged
by them : the wounds produced are not only extremely painful of
themselves but generally set up considerable swelling and inflamma-
tion as Stockle unfortunately had to learn by 'experience.

366. With the onset of evening all of us generally used to hurry
down to the beach with our lines and the pleasure of angling which he
had hitherto disdained, was soon aroused in Stockle's breast. He de"
clared that as a youngster he had indeed regretted the time spent on
fishing by the other boys in his native town, on which account he had
probably employed his own in better amusements, but here there was
no other entertainment for him and so in old age he was willing to do
that which h" had despised in youth. Within a short while, he suc-
ceeded in pulling out a moderately sized Baffnis which suddenly how-
ever freed itself from the hook and was quickly making for the water.
Stimulated by the general laughter, the novice, now becoming vexed,
threw himself upon the creature, but seizing it firmly with both hands,
immediately jumped up again as if he had gone crazy: abandoning the
chase he ran about like inad, screaming and wailing, with both arms
swaying up and down. On finally bringing him to a standstill we
noticed two wounds on the ball of the right hand, which soon began
to swell and inflame so badly that the inconvenience had hardly disap-
peared six days after. Since then Stockle had a keen aversion for
angling in consequence of which I could never prevail upon 'him to
catch hold of a fish before I had done so myself. A few days later these
creatures came close in shore in such quantities, that! there was no
necessity for throwing out lines: our Indians just waded a few steps
into the water and with long sticks struck inlto the dense shoals until
they killed as many as were required for supper,

ABUNDANCE o> EDIBLE FISH. io?

367. The abundance of fish at the estuary of the Barima is very
well known to the Indians and Venezuelans living at the mouth of the
Orinoco, who accordingly visit it frequently. Amongst the numerous
fish met with here, the Morocotu or Osibu, a species of Myletes, is the
most tasty and hence very much sought after: indeed, hardly had our
\Varraus recognised it than they disregarded everything else and gave
it their whole attention. The fruit of a large tree which they called
Caracamata served them as bait, for which reason they always carried
it about with them. Towards evening several of our companions spec*
ially laid themselves out to catch some, and with this end in view chose
a spot offering them as much security as possible against the current.
While the ones stood ready waiting with bow and arrow, another threw
these fruit into the water, and at the very moment a morocot let itselt
be seen coming to the surface to swallow it, for which purpose it has
to turn somewhat on its side, it became the prize of those on the watch
who never missed. The fish were almost always from 25 to 28 inches
long and generally about 12 inches high. I have never found them else-
where than on the coast at the mouths of the rivers, so that it would
seem that they avoid fresh water. A similarly ta^ty fish, also only
frequenting the mouths of the coastal rivers, is "the Querimanni, a spe-
cies of Mugil, which however never took the hook, and had therefore
to be caught in nets.

368. On account of this wealth of fish, particularly of the Queri-
manni, in October, November, and December, whole crowds of people
betake themselves here to salt the catch or dry it in the sun and then
bring it down the coast to the Georgetown market, where a Querimanni
fetches three shillings on the average. We came across but one single
Venezuelan with three corials who wanted to benefit by the rainy
season that had set in.

369. Except for several orchids such as Epidendrum and Maxillaria,
that covered the trunks of the Rhizophora, and a number of the pretty
yellow Oncidium iridifolium and Zygopetalum rostratum that had
chosen the shady bushes of the Avicennia, my botanical interest found
but little to stimulate it.

370. The unfavourable weather also prevented my brother making
any astronomical observations, so that his plan of surveying the Bar-
inia up to the Boca de Navios was upset. As all other attempts like-
wise failed, he had to limit his survey of the Barima to the immediate
river-bed, for which he chose the rate of sound transmission to meas-
ure distances between different points. On the 12th May he accord-
ingly had both our mortars set up at distantly separated spots with
instructions to fire them at fixed specified intervals, for which purpose
each detachment carried a chronometer while he himself stood on the
opposite shore and watched the times taken between the rising of 'the
smoke of a mortar and the receipt by him of its sound.

371. When towards evening Mr. Glascott returned to the tent with his
division, he brought two giant electric eels (Oymnotus electricus) 7 feet

i08 THE SHADOW OF TRAGEDY.

long and 1| feet girth, as well as a large poisonous snake (Trigono-
cephalus atrox Schleg.) 4 feet long, called Labaria by the Colonists. They
had found both electric eels in an almost dried up swamp and I am
firmly convinced that a "shock" from them would have killed the strong-
est ox. Mr. Glascott could not describe laughably enough the proce-
dures carried out by the negroes in putting the dangerous brutes to
death. The Indians had found the Labaria rolled up under a tree, and
had killed it. The Gymnotus was served by our negroes for tiheir sup-
per and eaten dripping over with fat: as our table was supplied with
something better, I felt no inclination to share theirs.

372. On account of his hand Stockle was unfortunately still unable
to help me with the skinning, and as a large number of birds had to be
prepared as quickly as possible or run the risk of turning bad, I was
on the 18th May prevented accompanying either my brother or Mr.
Glascott, though I did not like missing the opportunity at all, ever
since the capture of the Gymnotus. Mr. King accordingly went with
the latter as a welcome companion : along with three Indians they both
left in the cheeriest mood for the point determined upon, while my
brother hastened to the shore opposite. After the lapse of an hour I
heard the first shot fired, but, what remained unaccountable to me, was
its being immediately followed by a second though much weaker one.
Stockle's genial accounts of the homeland and his younger days had
almost made me forget the whole thing when, in about another short
hour's time, he called out to me: "There's Mr. Glascott's boat coming
already back but without him, Mr. King, and the third Indian." Of
course I immediately jumped up and hurried to the boat, where, even
before it landed, I heard my name being called amidst an awful wail-
ing, and soon recognised a black and bloody body lying in the bottom
as Mr. King. His whole face was blackened and trickled with blood
which had formed a thick coagulum on the top of his head and on dif-
ferent ;parts of his body: his hands and arms appeared to me to be
in the same condition, and as for his pride, the beautiful moustache
and whiskers, together with the largest part of his crop of hair, had
disappeared. At first sight I was momentarily robbed of speech: shud-
dering in my very soul I stood before my disfigured and suffering
friend. Full of life, joking, and chaffing, he had left me hardly two
hours before, and now Everyone's Favourite lay before me in the most
deplorable condition, his groaning and moaning only interrupted every
now and again with the agonising cries of: "Oh God, my eyes," "I am
blind and always unlucky," "Both my eyes are shot out." Close to him
lay a figure no less pitiable, the thirti Indian who stretched both his
burnt arms out towards me.

373. Neither of the two Indians accompanying them spoke a word
of English, King was no longer master of his senses, while the un-
restrained and perplexing pantomime of both paddlers could have
driven even the most cold-blooded individual to despair. Help as far
as it lay in my power to give, was the one thing I felt demanded of me.
With the assistance of Stockle and the two Indians Mr. King was ac-
cordingly carried as quickly as possible to the house where, while the

How THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED. 109

others went to fetch their wounded mate, I cut the clothes off his poor
body, only to find unfortunately the chest in the same condition as his
face: the continual trickle of the blood alone betrayed the situation
of the eyes which had become quite swollen and unrecognisable. My
next care was to clean up as carefully as I could the whole mixture
of coagulated blood and dirt, during which operation the groaning of
my poor friend naturally enough often made my hands shake. The two
Indians were in .the meantime hurriedly packed off to the opposite
shore to fetch my brother, Dr. Echlin, and the remainder of the party
who, arriving shortly after, helped me in my efforts. After removing
all the oozing blood, and carefully rubbing the lacerated parts with
olive oil which we fortunately carried, we tried in every way to lessen
the inflammation of the wounds. The whimpering and wailing indicat-
ed only too clearly that our friend's sufferings were awful.

374. After fixing up both patients as comfortably as possible, and
doing everything we could for the present, some of the Indians returned
for Mr. Glascott, who in the meantime had remained behind with the
instruments, and it was only on his return that we learned the cause
of the accident. Mr. King, who had arranged to fire the charge, had
forgotten to wash out the mortar after the first shot: when he now
went to pour in the fresh load of powder, about a beer-glassful, this
exploded and as the mouth of the short barrel was directed pretty well
vertically and he was just then bending over it, it blew him at least
ten paces distant so that he lay as if dead for several minutes at Mr.
Glascott's feet. The poor Indian, who during the loading had closed
the touch-hole with his hand, must not have noticed accurately that the
powder-cham'ber still contained some fire: he also was blown away by
the explosion and burnt in the manner above described.

375. The general hilarity hitherto prevailing especially at our mid-
day and evening meals, when King knew how to smoothe the gloomy
wrinkles from out of any ruffled brow with his ever genial and exuber-
ant humour, — humour that did not forsake him even at night amidst
the painful torments of mosquitoes.— had now disappeared, not only
for the reason that our grief made every outbreak of cheeriness impos-
sible but because, on account of the accident, the gaiety and mirth had
run dry at its source.

376. When on the following morning our hunters returned from their
trip they brought a beautiful deer and an enormous alligator. The deer
was the first mammal with which our table had been supplied since our
departure from Georgetown, and accordingly proved most welcome.
The alligator measured 7 feet, and without delay I seized knife and
tools to skin and prepare it. Unfortunately like many another treas-
ure, chis skin became the prey of moisture and irremovable mould. The
musky smell peculiar to the animal developed to such a degree during
its preparation, that becoming quite overpowered by it, I had to leave
the work from time to time and get a whiff of fresh air. In spite of
every washing it was a week before my hands lost the disgusting stench
that gave rise to many a shudder and "nauseous sensation, and it is for
this reason I have ever since then had a strong antipathy to musk,

HO CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SLOTH.

377. As in the case with the Waini sandbank the empty water bar-
rels, in spite of all the measures taken to supply the daily loss as far as
possible with rain-water, forced us to think about returning to Cum-
aka. On the 19th May the survey of the mouth of the Barima was
completed. It offers the same obstacle to navigation at its mouth as
does the Waini. If this were overcome, one finds, equally free, as far
as the branching off of the Aruka, the safest waterway for vessels of
from 250-300 tons burden. Our camp was found to be situate
8°3G"I,at.N. and 60°1S" Long.W.

378. Having already on the above date again packed our baggage
in the corials, we struck camp on the 20th and fixed up our poor friend
in the biggest boat as comfortably as circumstances permitted. He
was still totally blind while the burns had largely suppurated whereby
his sufferings seemed to have been considerably relieved. With com-
mencing flood, we left the mouth of the Barima and that of the mighty
Orinoco: of the latter I had unfortunately seen nothing except its
tranquil streaming waters, and in clear weather on the horizon, a few
green islands or a distant sail which, like a seagull, bore away into the
dim distance.

379. The incoming flood carried us quickly and uninterruptedly
past the islands and their active life floating up the stream, back alon^
the old course until the turn of the tide forced us to stop and wait for
the favourable flood which brought us back next day to Cumaka quite
safe though in an absolutely different state of mind than when we left
it. Shortly before our arrival prior to heading out of the Barima into
the Cumaka, one of our Indians noticed a sloth (Brady pus tridactylus)
upon the prominent roots of a Ehizophora, that probably after either
quenching its thirst or swimming across the river was now resting from
its strenuous labours. With a melancholy and piteous look, as if it wished
to say "Have pity on me," it let us surround and seize it. It was cer-
tainly easier to do this than to release it from the root-branches to
which it clung with all its might. It was only after tying both its fore-
feet, its sole but extremely dangerous weapons of defence, the wounds
from which are said to assume the worst of characters, that the united
efforts of three Indians using all their strength succeeded in loosening
it. In all natural history books old and recent, it is said that the
sloth is the laziest and most indolent of creatures, and that the most
urgent pangs of hunger will hardly force it to leave a tree until long
after the smallest little leaf has been consumed, slanders thait have been
spread about no animal more wrongfully than this one. To be sure
the wrhole build of its body is such that the creature every time plays
a miserable role on level ground. If the latter is in any way smooth,
its efforts to progress remain futile, and pity must be awakened even
I'n the most unfeeling person when he sees the poor creature lying flat
on the ground with both fore-paws searching all directions in vain for
a hold. When it does finally clutch upon a point of support with the
long sharp incurved claws of the one fore-foot it quickly stretches the
other one after it and then with difficulty drags its whole body along, for
the limbs are not able to carry it, Tf on the other hand one finds the animal
on a tree, he hardly recognises it again, on seeing it swing with

WARRAUS AS BOAT-BUILDEBS. Ill

from .branch to branch. The water is assigned as its home for a fish,
the clear sky for an eagle, the surface of the earth for other animals,
the forest tree alone for a sloth. Without trouble and effort it stirs
from the lowest branches to the topmost, and from tree to tree, espec-
ially if a strong wind sets in motion and brings their branches closer
together, so that they can be gripped more easily. It is a peculiar sight
to watch this animal on the move when, in accordance with its whole
build, it always utilises not the upper but the lower surfaces of the
branches. With the back dependent it first of all extends one fore-paw
f:s far as possible, digs in its claws, stretches the other to the same
spot, and simultaneously drags along both hind feet, a method of pro-
gression, if I may so term such a continuous movement, that is fairly
fast. During rest by night, and by day, it continually hangs in this
position below the branch with all four paws clasping an insignificant
space. If it climbs from one bough to another in a vertical direction,
it is done in the same way. With the one fore-paw it claws at the
higher branch until clutched, when by contraction of the whole body,
the second and both hind-paws immediately follow it. Though I sub-
sequently came across these animals so frequently in the interior, I never
found a tree that had been robbed of its foliage, although I have seen
ten to twelve of them on one and the same.

380. As we kept our prisoner alive for a long while, I had every
opportunity of watching its movements. If I put it down on the smooth
and hard-trodden ground under the tent-cover or in the house it hardly
moved a couple of feet often after hours of the most violent exertion and
laboured respiration which sounded very like the deep sighing of a
man. But no sooner was it handed a stick and brought close to a
house-beam than it hung onto it in that position for hours making a
continual contented purring sound and then swayed backwards and
forwards. Its favourite resort is the "lonely gloomy and damp virgin
forests where, born on the trees, it spends and ends its days.

381. On landing at Cumaka, we were gladly welcomed by the vil-
lagers and the chief prided himself not a little on the fact that we
found all our baggage as we had left it, intact — but of course lie im-
mediately asked for a glass of spirits as a reward for his honesty and
fidelity.

382. Already by next day no end of strangers had collected: they
regularly swamped the river at the landing-place with their corials.
The skill of the Warraus in the manufacture of these corials, a(s the
large canoes are called, excels that of all other Indian tribes, and is cele-
brated along the whole coast-line. In their whole construction, neat-
ness, safety and rapidity, these boats, without their makers having any
ideas of the theory of boat-building, formerly surpassed by far those
brought over from Europe. Now. it is true, -this source of industry has
been very much encroached upon. ThQ well known Spanish "launches"
that were employed in the revolutionary wars on the side of the Col-
umbians and generally carried 70 to 80 people together with two three-
pounders were also made by the Warraus.

383. The forests supply them with excellent trees, particularly the
giant cedar (Idea altissima Aubl.) which is so named wrongly by the

112 QUEEN VICTORIA'S BIRTHDAY.

Colonists on account of its smell, style and colour of timber greatly re-
sembling the well-known Bermuda cedar. Besides the Idea they also
particularly utilise the colossal trunks of Bombax Ceiba, and B.
globosum. If on felling the tree, the trunk has the Jength of corial re-
quired, they hollow it out and throw it into the water for several days :
if too big to transport without special contrivance to a rather distant
sheet of water, the already completed concavity is kept continually full
of water. When they think that it is now sufficiently soaked, the manufac-
ture is completed by bringing it to the right lines with the help of sev-
eral fires lighted under the staging on which it is placed, the expanded
sides being held apart by means of strong sticks whereby the corial, on
account of the action of the heat, obtains its trongh-like shape at each
extremity: this is the one single risky part of the operation when owing
to the slightest neglect or inexact equality of the fires, the wood immed-
iately splits.

384. As T had to have a corial I seized the opportunity offered and
bought for myself from chief William one of the smaller kind at a cost
of ten Spanish dollars (at four shillings the dollar). It was 33 feet
long and during the whole of my three years' travels under countless
difficulties, completely justified the trust I had set on it at the time of
purchase.

385. My brother and the Englishmen accompanying him could not
let the 24th May, Queen's Birthday, pass without a celebration. The
rising sun was greeted with a salute of 21 guns and a thrice repeated
hurrah. This form of salutation, unknown to the Indians, aroused a
general disturbance in the settlement at first and drew to our quarters
all the neighbouring villagers who could not understand the reason for
such a cannonade. As however, on their arrival, they recognised ad-
equately enough from our faces that the cause of the shooting was any-
thing but a hostile demonstration, they immediately joined in the gen-
eral rejoicings. To their intense enjoyment, from the large flag-staff
set up in front of m'y brother's house there flew on the light mornim"
breeze the huge ensigns of Great Britain, Holland, Columbia, and
Brazil which my brother had with him on account of the interests of
these Powers sharing in the fixation of the Boundary. The crews re-
ceived double rations, each Indian a glass of rum, while we drank the
Queen's health in the champagne with which the Governor had present-
ed my brother on his departure from Georgetown. Everything was
jnven up to enjoyment and Cumaka could have scarcely ever spent a
day like it: the influx of the Indians who had all become inquisitive
about the firing lasted throughout the day.

386. Unfortunately poor old King could not take pai<t in these fes-
tivities, although his improvement was considerably advanced. Our
fears about his having completely lost his sight were soon dispelled
when the swelling subsided: this was effected by the application of a
very simple measure, namely, continuous poultices of cassava bread
soaked in hot water, whereby further inflammation was prevented. Ho
soon began to recover vision, and this revived his good spirits that until
then had lain dormant.

387. The everlastingly violent tropical rainshowers, and resulting
atmospheric moisture iinfortuimtely gave rise to fresh sickness amongst

PRISONERS.

our company. .While it was simple fever that afflicted us before, dysen-
tery jvas now so intimately associated with it that, what with Mr.
Glascott having been also attacked, my brother found himself forced to
leave with Dr. Echlin alone for the Aiuacura which was assumed to be
part of the boundary line between Venezuela and British Guiana. For
several days prior to his departure my feet, that had been cut when the
chigoes were extracted, commenced to be so painful that not a moment's
rest either by day or night was to be thought of, the inflammation final-
ly increasing to such an extent as to make my following him impossi-
ble. With the healthier of the boathands and some of the Indians he
left us sufferers and Cumacka on the 27th May, comforting one another
and trying to while away the weary monotonous interval.

388. Though up to now I had bravely withstood all the attacks of
fever and dysentery to which the others had succumbed, the inflamma-
tion during the early days of its onset did not permit of my once putting
my feet to the ground. Considering that this condition of affairs was
now aggravated by the angered onslaughts of mosquitoes which I could
avoid just as little as Mr. King, our despair and anxiety, as the evenings
set in, can well be appreciated.

389. The soaked cassava-bread poultices had worked such wonders
with Mr. King, that I applied them on myself, and within a few days
felt so relieved, in fact, the inflammation was already so m'uch reduced
that I could again trust myself to dtand for a short while : I was more
than delighted at this because the many and varied blossoms which the
hunters brought home fron^ their daily excursions indicated only too
clearly that the rainy season had called quite a new flora into existence.

390. My feet nevertheless did not allow of my going more than a
few hundred yards, but to lie in my hammock with such [botanical se-
ducements was impossible : I had to get outside, and in order to do so,
measures were soon concocted. With my limbs carefully wrapped in
cassava poultices, I let myself be taken to the Oumaka and journeying by
corial up to the. Aruka, collected all I could, at least from along its
banks.

391. My hopes were fulfilled to a high degree. The continued
moisture had supplied the whole river-side with entirely new orna-
ments and where formerly the eye only noted the most varied shades
of verdant foliage, it now revelled in the richest floral decoration of
orchids and masses of creepers which spread in multi-coloured confus-
ion over the trunks and branches up to their very tips. In this lovely
tapestry embroidered with flowers were particularly noticeable the
glorious Cacoucia coccinea Aubl., Norantca guianensis Aubl., Binnonia
heterophyUa Willd., B. alba and B. incarnwta, Petrca vohibilis Linn.,
Passiflora coccinea, Allamanda Aubletii Pohl., Reciiridaca rolubilis
Linn., and Clitoria Poiteani DeC. with their red, yellow, blue, and white
blossoms which formed a really fairy-like contrast of colour with the
dark rich foliage of the trees to which they had trusted themselves. The
large white waxy flowers of the (iiistacia angustifolia Linn, and Clusia
insignis Mart, only increased this magic colouring still more. Oh! it is
times such as these that amply compensate us for our many grievous
hours, shattered hopes, and bitter experiences ! Once fixed in our heart and
soul, they become our life-long companions and ever presenting nove!

NATURE SHEDDING HER WEALTH.

charms help to cheer us when the Present and the Future cast aside their
deceptive veil and Life in its darker aspects looms threateningly ahead
of us.

392. But yet it was not the eye alone that enjoyed it. The moist
atmosphere lilled with the loveliest perfume from thousands of flower-
ing orchids transported me to that stage of Imagination which disclos-
es the innermost recesses of one's heart, and makes the full enjoyment
of the Present dispel all thoughts of the Past and Future. So bounti-
fully did Nature shed her wealth on me. I had never yet seen such an
abundance of orchids in bloom. Oncidium Lanceanum Lindl., 0. Baueri
Lindl., O. lunatiDH Lindl., and the small 0. iridifolium Humb. Kth.
ZygopetaluHi rostra iu HI Hook, Epidendrum umbellatum Lindl., Myan-
thus barbatus Lindl., M. dcltoides Lindl., Bifrenaria longicornis Lindl.,
Maxillaria cristata Lindl., Coryanthes macrantha, C. maculata Hook.,
Monachanthus discolor Lindl., Brassavola angustata Lindl., Peristeria,
pendula Hook., Brass! a macrostachya and B. Lanceana Lindl., were
associated on one single tree, for the height of the trees made the recep-
tion of such masses of bloom possible : the lonopsis teres had taken up
its station on the Caladium arborescens Vent. Near by, the edges of the
water glided in between a regular trellis of giant Crinumi the height of
which gradually rose with the incoming flood when the floating flowers
alone indicated the existence of their stalks. It is hardly necessary to
mention that from now onwards I daily renewed my excursions by
corial, and thus continually added to my Herbarium, for on every re-
peated trip my anxious eyes discovered something new or something
previously overlooked. There was only one thing to mar my pleasure,
at least momentarily, and that was the innumerable ants which partic-
ularly chose the Epidendrum and Coryanthes roots for their home:
the slightest shake of the branches brought thousands into our corial
so that, to free ourselves from the painful bites of the frightened insects,
we often had to leave behind the loveliest specimens of flower.

393. Almost every tree from the mangrove up to the huge Leguni-
inosae lodges its own mpre or less dangerous species of ant, one of which
is also distinguishable from the other by the construction of its nest.
That on the mangrove is at the same time -the surest measure for the
height of the flood, because it is only found at a level seldom reached
by this condition of the tide. Even as different as the nest is also the
odour peculiar to each species which varies from that of our large forest
ants to the most awful of stenches. As soon as the flood reaches an un-
usual height and comes within reach of the nests, the worried occupants
escape in a body to the tree top where they lump themselves together in
huge clusters whence they will drop on the slightest disturbance. Woe
to us when one of these clumps fell into the corial. Bishop Hatito could
not have run from the pursuing mice as nimbly as we did from the
countless hordes that suddenly attacked us in battle-array.

394. It was on one of these short excursions that I happened to dis-
cover a new Coryanthes over which I deemed myself to be rightly proud.
I could hardly trust my eyes on seeing in front of me the glorious gigan-
tic yellow brown-spotted blossom of six inches diameter and upon closer
examination recognising it as a member of that genus. The only sped-

ARRIVAL OF AN AUGUST PERSONAGE. 115

men remaining, it was unfortunately included in the valuable collection
of orchids that got destroyed in Berlin. On another occasion we nofticed
a giant ant-eater (Myrmecophaga jubata Linn.) as it was swimming
across the Aruka, but as none of our weapons were loaded at the time it
escaped pursuit. It swims unusually fast, though only the tip of its long-
snout, a portion of its back, and end of its long tail is visible above the
surface : the whole of the rest of its body remains submerged.

395. On getting back to the settlement on the 7th June I found at
the landing place a corial that differed in several respects from those
previously seen, whence I surmised the arrival of Indian strangers : my
conjectures were confirmed. They were Arawaks occupying the basin of
the Asacota and had come on a mission with the information that their
chief Caberalli was about to pay Gumaka a visit and would be arriving
next day. Mr. King, who was already acquainted with Caberalli, excit-
ed our curiosity not a little on telling us that he was one of the proudest
of rulers and that on paying his round of such visits he usually contriv-
ed to appear with as much pomp as possible, and that we should proba-
bly find him surrounded with at least the half of his dependents.

396. The sudden outburst of shou/ting and screeching at noon next
day announced his arrival in the neighbourhood of the village. Attract-
ed by curiosity, I also halted at the waterside to see the proud and dread-
ed sovereign come along and gazed in surprise at the Cumaka, upon tho
smooth glassy surface of which quite a small flotilla was paddling in
our direction to the accompaniment of a wild monotonous chant. The
nearer it approached the landing the wilder became the shouting that
was taken up by the thousand-voiced echo of the forest. At the head of
the procession, and manned with a large number of paddlers was to be
seen an extraordinarily big corial with its centre occupied by an elegant
tent-cover made from the fronds of Manicaria saccifera, under which sat
a figure in white trousers and similarly coloured jacket, with a head
wrapped in a long red cloth the ends of which fluttered from the tem-
ples,— this must be the chief — and it was he!

397. Upon this corial reaching the landing-stage a general shout
from all the boats heralded the important event. The powerful though
small-statured man, strongly tattooed at the corners of the mouth and
over the eyes, now rose and sprang on to the bank. With stately tread, ac-
companied by some others of his people and without deigning to cast
a single glance at us as he passed, he swept up the hill and to the settle-
ment. At its entrance stood our William with the most important
personages of his little State in a costume that w^ould have made even
the most serious minded individual laugh: the staff of office found sup-
port in his right hand, a shirt covered with dirt enveloped his body, while
a pressed-in worn-out hat crowned his worthy head, but in spite of these
attentions, he also was not vouchsafed a single look. Without altering
his pace in the slightest degree, Caberalli flaunted past himj and casting
a critical eye over the different houses finally came to a halt in front of
one that seemed to have taken his fancy. A few words in the Warrau
language which he addressed to the wondering occupants appeared to be
strict orders, because the owners proceeded to clear out of it without
delay. Hardly was this done when one of the taciturn attendants com-

BATING HlM IN Rltffc.

iiig along with a bundle, opened out a splendid hammock which wad
slung in the middle of the building, whereupon the proud commander
good-naturedly laid himself down and now examined us from his throne
with contemptuous haughty gaze. The dependents who had stopped at
the landing showed up shortly after in one long series bringing with
them their master's travelling tackle, which mainly consisted of a num-
ber of large and small delicately-plaited baskets, several guns, and a
complete kitchen and cooking-apparatus. If only a contemptuous look
had fallen to our lot before, there now was combined with it a still more
triumphant pride when Caberalli turned his gaze upon the Warraus gath-
ered around who, with open mouth, were staring at all this wealth of
riches. Although the autocrat had been given the courtesy of beinij
met at the landing — even admitting that curiosity had led us to take
such action — and yet wanted us to place so high a value on his worth,
we made up our minds that if he wanted to be "stuck-up," we could be
much more so. 'As His Eoyal Highness had passed us at the landing
without taking the slightest notice of us, Mr. King and T immediately
decided to regard the presence of the proud gentleman as if it were non-
existent, a decision that was impressed upon all our people.

o98. He appeared keenly sensitive to this absolute neglect on our
part : he tossed himself about restlessly and vexatiously : he wanted as if
to get out of the hammock but lay down again : he then casit reproving and
enquiring looks in our direction — but it all made no difference, and with-
out worrying over him, we went about our business. Perhaps an hour
might have passed in this way since he arrived when he finally seemed
to have overcome all uncertainty and irresolution concerning his conduct:
he now suddenly jumped out of his hammock, put his costume to rights
and with a look of disappointed expectation strolled over to our place
followed by several of his companions. When he reached our quarters
we dropped everything that we were just then doing, and awaited him
with indifference. As he knew Mr. King, he went up to him first, greet-
ed him, and told him that hie had come to pay him a visit and give him
some important information. Now came the series of his salutations
for myself and the others : in my case they were given in broken English.

399. So far as size is concerned, the figures of the Arawaks differed
but little from that of the Warraus, as they do not exceed the average
man's height: but as regards shape as a whole, they varied more. The
whole bodily frame was much better proportioned : they were indeed not
so muscular as the former, but on the other hand, shewed themselves
much smarter in all their movements, far more active and far more agree-
able. The colour of their skin was much lighter, the features on account
of their regularity were more expressive and owing to the more marked
tattoo had assumed a peculiar character.

400. After Caberalli had withdrawn to his house and changed his
costume, on which account his attendants had to open every basket to get
out the articles of attire specially affected, he had some other hammocks
Blung close to the first one and laid himself down alfternately, now in
this one, now in the other.

401. His Highness's immediate requirements be\ng now satisfied he
settled himself as comfortably a§ possible. Just as their chief had pre-

Music HATH CHARMS. 117

viously done, so did his companions scrutinise the remaining houses, their
collective owners being soon driven out of their possessions and forced
to build themselves shelters outside the village so as to find cover from
the continuous rain. Having slung their hammocks and made themselves
quite at home, several of the usurpers appeared before Caberalli supplied
with guns, bowo, arrows, and fish-hooks, took their orders from him, and
then went off in two corials. The whole procedure left no room for doubt
but that they were the fishers and hunlters attached to the royal house-
hold who had to provide for the mid day and evening meal, which soon
turned out to be the case.

402. We now considered it expedient to pay the chief our return
visit: he received us seated and accepted our greetings far more conde-
scendingly and amicably than we could have expected in view of his pre-
vious conduct. But when Mr. King asked him about the iriyste^y he had
to communicate, he explained that he would have to wait until my broth-
er's return. The dividing barriers of the imaginary etiquette were hence-
forth broken and we now conversed with one another in friendly fashion.

403. Every day brought fresh companv so that the number of guests
gradually grew to such a size that there was soon no more room for erect-
ing shelters in the free space surrounding the settlement, with the result
that they now had to be constructed in the forest : the visitors already
arrived seamed to want1 to stav just as lon<r as we did.

404. The next troop of Warraus that followed the Arawaks was led
by an Indian who, to my surprise, carried on his arm a violin set, it is
true, with only two strings. After the newcomers had built their benab,
the musician sat in the middle of it and commenced playing his beloved
instrument, on which however he never produced a modulation of note
by pressure of the left-hand fingers, bufc just drew the bow over the free
strings in longer or shorter sweeps. He had probably bought the instru-
ment in town. Alongside the old violinist the "whole assemblage man?-

fested the utmost gaiety, which particularly of an evening after sundown
increased to wild delight when old and young commenced dancing to this
beautiful music : it was all the more interesting to me because I had
never yet been able to watch the Indians taking their pleasure. The per-
severance of the aged musician exceeded all my conceptions of patience —
for hours at a time without a moment's pause he sounded his two notes
without moving a muscle of his face, or any other portion of his bodv but
his arms. When he finallv came to a standstill, he crossed over to us
and asked for a glass of spirits as a. stimulant : if he did not receive it
straight away no power could make him start playing again, whereupon
the whole crowd of dancers naturally came up every time in a body to
prevail upon us with their combined entreaties, to satisfy the obstinate
old artist's demands.

405. Properly speaking, every Warrau settlement possesses its own
music instructor, Hoho-hit, who teaches the young boys and men of the
place to blow on a sort of Oboe which is made out of a longer or shorter
piece of bambu, at the upper end of which is fixed a thin mouth-piece of
reed with a longer or shorter glottis. The notes produced on this wind-
instrument much resemble those of the Russian national instrument.
Almost every evening the young people gather around their music-teacher
and under his leadership hold a concert in the middle of the village. Ac-

118 INDIAN DANCES,

cording to the size of the bambu-stem and its opening, the
instrument gives a higher or a lower note. A movement with
the hand, a nod of the head, or beating the time with the instrument on
the part of the Hoho-hit towards that one of the
musicians who has to commence or fall in, regulates the
whole performance. Although as I have just remarked, each in-
strument only possesses a single note, thei musical conductor nevertheless
knows the notes of the collective instruments so exactly, and gives his di-
rections so explicitly, that really a basis of harmony rules in the noise,
just as those Russian players produce the most difficult pieces of mnsie
with their pipes. Now, are the Warrau Indians or the Kussians the dis-
coverers of the instrument? A question for investigators into the history
of mjusic.

406. Although the music-loving residents almost every evening made
one's ears tingle with their reeds, they never as yet had danced to it : the
notes of 'the violin however they could no more resist than could the .chil-
dren of Hamlin resist the rat-catching piper.

407. For the most part the various dances are performed only by the
men: the most interesting however were without doubt those in which
the women and girls took part, when they adorned themselves in the
most festive style. Neck, arms, wrists and ankles were then encircled
and decorated with stringed beads. After the women dancers had all
collected, the men with the violinist at their head stepped from out of
the bush with the instruments in their hands and, bowing low aill the
time, moved off towards where the ladies were waiting : the men were dec-
orated with the loveliest feather ornaments, and each had tied around
his feet several strings of seed-capsules of the Thevetia nereifolia Jnss.,
which by knocking up against each other during the strcsag stamping of
the dance produced a deafening rattle. They slowly approached the
spot chosen for the performance : the violin ceased to play, and the move-
ment was regulated by the note of a sm-all fife, upon which the piper
cleverly knew how to imitate the voice of a monkey. As soon as the place
was reached they surrounded the musician in a circle : a second signal
gave the order to put all instruments on the ground and bow their heads
until such time as the Hoho-hit had murmured several unintelligible
words after which, on a third signal, they raised them again arid picked
up their instruments to play. All the evil spirits were now banished
from out of reach of the dancing ground, arid at the same time the power-
taken from! them of disturbing the frolickers at their sport or hurting
them in any other way. On completion of this exorcism ceremony the
real dance itself commenced. The women and iiirls now likewise formed
themselves into a ring, circled around a few times, and then each drew
near to the one whom she fancied dancing with, when she put her right-
hand over her sweetheart's left shoulder, he placing his left hand
over her right shoulder. Thus locked together, with eyes turned
to the ground, they tripped it forwards, backwards, and sideways to-
wards the old fiddler. The performance coming to an end, the dancers
stamped three times with their feet, whereupon a deafening row was pro-
duced. If her partner were a near acquaintance, her brother, or the ob-
ject of her heart's silent yearning she quietly waited for the 'third stamp
at the very spot they then happened to occupy: if however he was no

EXPLORING THE ARUKA. 119

trusted acquaintance, a stranger, or some indifferent person to whom the
pleasure of dancing had alone impelled her, she fled M'ith the speed of a
gazelle back to her original place immediately the first stamp sounded.
A general shout on the part of the men brought the ball to a close.

408. Besides this dance, the men, but these alone, performed several
others which according to oair ideas did not bear the most elegant of
names, since they were named after animals whose antics or voices they
sought to imitate. Thus they spoke of a monkey-, a sloth-, a bird-dance
etc. Though at the beginning these innocent amusements aroused the
keenest interest bo)th in myself, Mr. Glascott, and the others who saw
them for the first time, this soon began to wane, because the dissolute
rowdy dancers often continued them late into the night and banished
sleep from camp. However here, as elsewhere, we had to rnjake the best
of a bad job: the best a wise man can do when he can't do otherwise.

409. I had never as yet seen such an assemblage of people where
hardly one was to be found without a scar due to some previous injury,
whether owing to explosion — some rotten fire-arm purchased with col-
onial covetousness, imported into Georgetown as trade, and received in
payment for hired service — or to fractured bone, axe-cut, snake bite, en-
counter with wild animals or to strife arising between man and man,
and yet all were fairly well healed, and mostly without surgical assistance.
I was especially struck with the case of a young man who as the result
of the bite of a poisonous snake, Trigonocephalus atrox, had immediately
cut off half the foot which had been bitten : the damage was so well re.
paired that he only limped, almost unnoticeably .

410. On June 10th my brother and his party arrived all right at
Cumaka, and were heartily welcomed by everybody. After following the
Aruka for thirteen miles he had reached the mouth of the Aruau. To
become acquainted however with the upper course of the Aruka and at
the same time to visit ,a Warrau settlement which was to be found higher
he followed it up. Beyond the Aruau mouth the width of the Aruka had
rapidly taken off, so that the former proud and mighty river now hardly
measured 90 feet across : its banks were generally marshy and taken over
solely by Euterpe and Manicaria while alt the same time its waters ap-
peared so dark-black and muddy that one could hardly distinguish where
the reflected picture of the trees and bushes fringing its sides commenced
and the edges of the land ended. Late in the evening they reached the
Warrau village that was occupied by 18 Indians, from whom he hired a
few for transporting the corial over the unnavigable places between the
Aruka and Amacnra that had to be surmounted on the following dav. A

~ •'

second, just as small a settlement, was situate still farther up and, ac-
cording to the statements of the Indians, must be the last on the upper
Aruka. From there, the residents maintained, the source of the river
was to be found some 15 miles farther to the southward.

411. Next morning they returned down the Aruka as far as the mouth
of the Aruau and following the bed of the latter reached the portage by
evening when they dragged tlie corial over to a small tributary of the
Amacnra. The ground rose to a height of about 40 or 50 feet above the
level of the stream where this range of hills, stretching from North-West
to South-East, at the same time formed the watershed between the small
tributaries of the Amacnra and Bariina. The direction of the overlancl

120 A NET WORK OF RIVERS.

journey itself lay towards the South- West: its length amounted to a
mile. The size of the corial, owing to the small trail, rendered the work
so difficult, that they took two days to bring it to the Yarikita Kiver.
The soil here consisted generally of a rich loam, on which grew a number
of the most beautiful timbers for ship building. It was my brother's firm
conviction that when the time should subsequently arrive for the distri-
bution in this district of a denser population and a higher state of civil-
isation, nothing could possibly be easier than to junction up the Barima
with the Amacura by means of a canal since it would only be necessary
to scoop out the short stretch of river-bed which is at present unnaviga-
ble.

412. Except for some isolated granite boulders, which without any
doubt had been rolled here by the force of the current, a stone was
nowhere to be seen. The course of the Yarikita had been a north-wes-
terly one, and after the small streams Wayuma and Waina had junction-
ed with its left bank, had rapidly increased in size. The action of the
ebb and flow was also distinctly visible. It was only when quite close to
its mouth in the Amacura that they first noticed on its right bank several
mountains rising to a height of 500 feet named Wanatari by the Indians.
After entering the Amacura and following its course, they reached !by six
o'clock in the evening the mouth of the Otucamabo, on its right or
eastern bank. As iny brother was keen on visiting Asecura, a settlement
occupied by Arawaks and Warraus under the chieftainship of Yan, he
turned into the Otucnmabo and was cordially received by the villagers.

413. In company with chief Yan and some of his dependents, they left
\secura on the 2nd June and steered up the Amacura. After passing
Yarikita mouth it rapidly lost its previous size, and in the Course of the
day dwindled down to a stream; of ordinary proportions. During the
evening they entered the Curiyapo, which runs into the Amacura from
the West, to search its banks for a Warrau settlement which they likewise
found. As the rain fell in torrents they were obliged to remain here
next day but as the following one did not prove any more favourable,
they continued their trip up the Amacura to its cataract and rapids. This
in the main proved to be an insuperable obstacle to navigation for the
present, owing to a granite wall that; stretched right across the river. The
Curiyapo, close to its mouth, is only separated by a small neck of land
from the Amacura which with its flat banks twisted its way through the
valley like a snake. Nevertheless the farther they proceeded up it beyond
the Curiyapo, the more the banks increased in height and the denser be-
came the forestation. The Tusa, wrhich is about as deep as the Amacura,
joined it on its right a few miles above the Curiyapo.

414. The sketch of the bed of the Amiacura, as hitherto shewn on the
maps, turned out to be completely incorrect, because it lies much farther
to the westward than indicated. The perpendicular height of the Cuyur-
ara cataracts was about 12 feet, in connection with which two other cat-
aracts appeared somewhat farther above, so that the water rushed down
a vertical heign't of 30 feet. The large corial prevented the travellers
proceeding up beyond owing to the insignificance into which the river
dwindled there, while on account of the unsuitable weather, astronomi-
cal observations were of course not to be thought of ; eyer since

WHO HAS EATEN LABA." 121

hardly a star had come into view. Prom what the Indians said, the
source of the Amacura was to be found a two days' journey above the
Cuyurara.

415. On the 5th June they returned to Aseeura. When my brother
left Cumaka he had only taken with him1 a chronometer, a sextant, an
artificial horizon, and a prismatic compass, and ras, until the (Jth Juno
no opportunity had offered itself for an observation, he was none too
sure about the accuracy of his chronometer. Already on the 25th May
some of the Indians from Asecura had visited and assured us that they
had been attracted to Cumaka by the cannonade on the morning of the
24th which they had distinctly heard in their village. When taking his
departure my brother had accordingly charged Mr. Glascott to have our
mortar fired three times on June 6th at six o'clock in the evening, and

distinctly hearing the sound in Asecura, was at the same time afforded
the opportunity of fixing the difference of longitude between Cumaka
and that settlement.

416. They left Asecura on 7th June to resume their investigations
up to the mouth of the Amacura. whither Yan also accompanied them.
By midday they had reached the Coyoni which, just as the Mora consti-
tutes a connecting channel between the Waini and Barima, provides a
similar one between the Amacura and Araturi since it junctions the
former with the Waiicacari or Bassama that falls into the Araturi which
opens into the Orinoco opposite Imataka Island.

417. On his return my brother found Mr. King, the skin of whose face
during his short absence had peeled off three times, quite convalescent.
On the other hand he found Hancock and Stockle in all the more pitiable
i condition, the inflammation during the past few days having again
taken on so bad a turn that they could no longer use their feet : — mine
seemed to be rapidly running the same risk.

418. In spite of the large number of individuals, who were scouring th->
neighbourhood the whole day long, the keen hunters nevertheless brought
liome every evening plenty of spoil. Our people were also fairly lucky and
were most agreeably welcomed whenever the Aguti (Dasi/procta Aguti
111.) and Laba (Coeloyenys Pnca Cuv.) were found among the bag. Owing
to. the excellence of the latter's flesh, there is a saying throughout the
Colony that "He who has eaten Laba and drunk water from Guiana's
forest streams, can never leave Demerara again." The favourite resorts
of this creature are small forest-creeks where it burrows under the roots
or chooses a hollow tree-trunk to live in. To get the animal out of its
hiding-place, the Indians train small dogs which, like our badger-hound,
make their way into the holes and drive the occupants out.

419. Qn the morning after my brother's arrival Caberalli in all the
glory of his sovereignty appeared before him and gave the information
hinted at, which consisted in this, that some days prior to our arrival in
Cumaka a murder had taken place in a settlement close by. He pointed
out the murderer as a boy from Cumaka named Maicerwari : the victim
was a Piai (medicine-man) known as Waihahi. Mr. King as Police In-
spector was not a li/ttle surprised, particularly because chief William had
not said a word to him about it, although, as Caberalli maintained, he
had witnessed the tragedy. Without further delay King accordingly harj

122 INDIAN BOY'S STORY OF VENDETTA,

William as well as Maicerwari sent for. Stepping into the house at the
same time as the) boy, William seemed to have a fore-boding of something
evil, for his pleasant countenance altered so strikingly at sight of the
latter's presence that it already evidently admitted half an avowal. We
watched the boy in wrapt attention and our interest increased the more
as he regarded us of his own free accord and unsubdued by fear, but in no
sense with the consciousness of having committed crime. The lad was
about twelve years old, and well-grown, and displayed a really proud and
self conscious yet at the same time extraordinarily earnest and melan-
choly expression, which was unusually deepened by his long black and
shiny hair. We had been repeatedly struck with his serious and sedate dis-
position, because we had never seen him playing with others of equally
tender years, and never dreamed that already at this youthful age he
had stood forth as the avenger of his family.

420. The examination had now to be undertaken, but unfortunately
only Caberalli and my brother's interpreter could speak a little English :
the knowledge of the Warrau language on the part of Mr. King was just
as poor and could in no sense serve adequately for a procedure of this
nature. The summons for the chief and for Maicerwari had immediately
aroused suspicion amongst the villagers and strangers, with the result
that our house was soon surrounded in silent and attentive gaze by every-
body present. Mr. King turned first of all to William, and asked him
why he had kept the occurrence secret. "Because I saw nothing wrong
in it : the boy avenged his father's and mother's death on the man who
robbed him of them." After a long and difficult enquiry, the following
finally came out : — An Indian, by name of Waihahi who lived on the
Orinoco, had for a long time past visited the Indians on the Aruka, ly
whom he was generally feared as a mighty Piai. The early death of the
boy's father who had insulted the Piai at a drinking party, and against
whom the medicine-man had thereupon sworn an inexorable grudge, let
it be only too readily surmised that the latter had already put his threats
into execution, and as at a subsequent visit of the Piai, Maicerwari's
mother, who was tenderly loved by her son, also met her death with sim-
ilar symptoms, the suspicion against Waihahi turned into certainty, and
the boy coolly went up to the murderer and charged him with the shame-
ful crime. "My revenge is not yet satisfied: there still lives a iniem-
ber of the hated family," was all the satisfaction he received. What the
boy had borne in his bosom ever since his father died and which the death
of his beloved mother fanned still further into flame had soon >to be put
in execution, lest the murderer should get hold of him first. Some days
1x»fore our arrival Waihahi came to Cumaka and invited the villagers to
a drinking party which he proposed giving in one of the neighbouring set-
tlements. When William with several others went to attend it Maicer-
wari who had not been invited, proceeded to join them. Already in the
course of the forenoon, as a result of their heads getting excited with the
drink, a stiff wordy warfare arose between William and Waihahi, when
the latter angrily exclaimed that however William might curse and brag
he nevertheless knew that he, as well as his arrogant companions, would
die in the forest on their return journey just as suddenly as Macerwari's
parents, The boy who had not touched a drop, but as a quiet and at-

SLAYING THE MURDERER or His PARENTS. 123

tentive observer had kept himself aloof from the quarrel, believed the
time ripe enough for both satisfying his revenge, and saving himself
and his chief. Overcome by his immoderate passion for drink, Waihahi
threw himself into his hammock, and soon fell into a sleep from which
he was never to wake again. Like a lynx, Maicerwari had followed his
every movement, like a shadow he had sneaked after him over the ground,
and now with eyes flashing revenge, he stands beside the hated mur-
derer, his war-club is slowly raised — and with, a crash it falls on the head
of his mortal enemy. The victim's brother, who was also present, buried
the body in the same house : the residents fired the village and withdrew
to another district.

421. The deepest silence prevailed over the whole settlement during
the long examination. With the ending of the enquiry, the people around
whispered lightly to one another, while the crowds of women and girls
stood somewhat farther aside; each one watching our faces as well as every
twitch of the muscles on the part of William and Maicerwari. Though
an unmistakable confusion clouded the countenance of William, for he
knew only too well that he had done wrong in not reporting the occur-
rence to Mr. King, the boy stood up before us* all the more unabashed an,1.
calm. What he had done was done with the highest sense of duty : he
\vould have been despised had he delayed doing so. Blood for Blood,
Life for Life, was the idea that the boy had first learned to express, tho
sentiment that he had imbibed with his mother's milk.

422. We looked forward to Mr. King's verdict with extreme tension
but were more than surprised when he not only wrote out his notes of
the case, but also gave orders for the exhumation of the body, so as to
confirm personally the truth of what had been stated : at the same time
he held Maicerwari prisoner so as to take him to Georgetown and send
him up for trial, which in spite of all protestations on our part, and
to my brother's great annoyance, was subsequently effected. Strictly
speaking, he had no legal right to take such action, because Cumaka was
situate on a stretch of land to which the Venezuelans believed they had
just as much title as England, and had accordingly been declared neu-
tral, and because the lad, to whom the religious and moral laws of the
white people were absolutely unknown, had only followed his own con-
victions.

423. Unfortunately the poor untrammelled boy, accustomed to free-
Horn, had to spend a year in prison before being acquitted. I must can-
didly admit that this overdone zeal of Mr. King cooled my attachment
for an otherwise honest man, and up to this very day I cannot forget tho
twelve-month which he certainly made the unhappiest in the lad's life.

424. Next morning the exhumation of the corpse had to be proceed-
ed with, when we as well as William, the boy, and all the Indians who
had been present at the murder, had to attend as witnesses. But where
vrere we going to get the people to undertake the job? Just the very
mention of it alone had struck such wholesale terror into the Indians
that no power on earth could prevail on them to take even a spade in
their hands. Mr. King would have forced William and the other In-
dians in vain to attend otherwise than as idle spectators, had he not
railed upon our whole crew in the name of the law to assist him in
carrying out his legal duty, a demand which had to be obeyed. The

121 EXHUMING THE BEAD.

ship's long unsheathed swords seemed to instil so much respect, at least
in the Indians, that, they passively submitted to the order. Curiously
enough Maicerwari here again made an exception, for hardly was ho
informed that he mjnst accompany Mr. King to the victim's grave than,
with eyes wildly flashing, he declared himself quite ready to do so.

425. Several upstanding half-charred blackened posts and houses
partially destroyed by fire, as well as bushes burnt and singed indicat-
ed, at the end of half-an-hour's tramp, that we had reached the former
dllage, the scene of the tragedy. With the most striking expression
<of extreme terror, William now pointed to a spot surrounded by six
charred posts, telling Mr. King at the same time that this was the house
he was looking for. No mound indicated the grave, the loose red earth
alone betraying it, but none of the Indians could be prevailed upon to
take a spade and sitart digging. Even our negroes declined with every
sign of inward horror: "The dead man will follow me my whole life
long, drive sleep away from my bed, hunt me out of the circle of the
happy ones, and poison every drink for rate" — such was the continual
rejoinder to Mr. King's threats, entreaties and orders. Finally, the
promise of a double ration of rum induced one of the coloured people to
agree to do the work. He soon struck up against the body which, covered
with palm-leaves, was rolled up in a hammock, and spread a most awful
stench. As soon as this stink reached the Indians standing at a dis-
tance, they ran off in the wildest terror, screaming with fright. The
boy alone remained, as if rooted to the spot, while his truly awful avildly-
flashing eyes and the powerful twitching of his muscles as he held his
breath, only too clearly l>etrayed that all the fury of his revenge was
once more kindled. Every stroke of the spade, as the man went on dig-
ging, only increased his unbridled passion, and, with half-bent body, he
stared into the grave so as not to miss the instant when the hated
body would again come into view: a tiger could not have watched with
more inward greed for the propitious moment to be assured of its prey.
After the body had been quite uncovered and the liammock unfolded,
there awaited us a more terrible sight before which everybody present,
except Maicerwari alone, unconsciously recoiled. The blow had crushed
the whole of the right side of the head, and the split bone had been
forced inside so that the brain lay exposed. The boy remained standing
there motionless, while his soul seemed desirous of grasping everv detail
of the ghastly picture, and figuring it out in all its closest particulars.
After Mr. King had several times addressed him in vain, he at last
caught hold of him and asked, "Have you done this?" With sparkling
eyes the boy suddenly pulled his youthful figure to its full height, let
his rough contemptuously exultant gaze rest for but an instant on each
of us, closed his fist convulsively and then raised his arm slowly on high
with a powerful muscular effort to let it fall again as quick as thought :
all of a sudden the compressed chest heaved heavily while drops of
sweat rolled from every pore : he glanced again in triumph at the corpse,
and with a piercing shriek turned away and hurried back to Cumaka.

,426. We stood for a long while face to face without saying a word,
no one venturing to break the silence. This method of satisfying the re-
yenge of a wild unbridled disposition had affected us very strongly. J

AVENGER UNDISTURBED AT PROSPECTS.

faad intended keeping the skull for the Anatomical Museum in Berlin,
but this could not be done as it was completely smashed.

427. The Indians who had run off had already spread the news of
our doings and frightened the whole village. Everybody avoided and
watched us with scared looks : it was unmistakeable that the trust hith-
erto reposed in us was now entirely replaced by a secret dread.

42$. .When the boy was informed through chief Caberalli that he
would have to accompany Mr. King to Georgetown, he took it quite in-
clitt'erently and exclaimed quite unconcernedly, "Why should I not ac-
company him;? I have only done what I had to do, the white people there-
lore cannot punish me ." The more calmly Maicerwari received the news
the greater was the stir among the villagers and strangers, but espec-
ially the women. The trust already shattered was undoubtedly chang
eel to mistrust, because judging from their own views of the case, and
therefore not believing that the tragedy by itself alone could possibly
be the one and only inducement for our course of action, they naturally
suspected that we must be influenced by some other. Although Maicer-
wari, by his manly disposition had earned considerable respect in the
village where he had become its favourite to a great extent, he had no
support to expect from his nearest kinsmen, and being without parents,
brothers or sisters, probably without any relatives at all, recognised that
ho was thrown on his own resources: these circumstances favoured us
and resulted in no open opposition being shewn to Mr. King's orders.
Had the poor boy but the remotest idea that, robbed of his freedom, he
would be languishing a whole year in prison, he would certainly have
saved his agony by taking to flight, yet the conviction that he had only
performed his duty and done no wrong spared him that dread : without
raising any objection he accompanied us a few days later as our atten-
dant on the journey to the Barima.

429. On account of our rather lengthened stay among the Warraus
who were collected here in such numbers, I got to know their manners
and customs fairly accurately. In the following notes I am accordingly
endeavouring to paint a true picture of them, and in order to do so,
have utilised everything that I learned both from what I observed my-
self then and subsequently, and from what I gathered after careful oft-
repeated enquiry.

430. The Warraus or Guaranos inhabit exclusively the coastal
areas between the Essequibo and Orinoco, over which their settlements
with a population of 1,650 individuals extend barely a hundred
miles inland. Earlier travellers have stated it is true that, during the
rainy season when the coastal, regions are entirely submerged with rag-
ing floods the Warraus took refuge in the trees on the high tops of
which they raised their houses : nevertheless we never saw them in an
abode of this description although, during our stay among them, the
spring rains poured in torrents, and the streams rose far above their
banks. On the other hand we indeed often found their primitive houses
erected on tree-trucks cut off at a certain height from the ground and
covered with pieces of wood to form a sort of platform that secured them
from a fairly high ris<* of water. Whether the Warraus occupying the
banks of the Orinoco have a different custom I cannot say because t
have not visited a settlement of theirs. The build of body and whole

126 WA.RRATJ DOMESTIC LIFE.

appearance of the Warraus, their uncleanliness and indolence, I have
already sketched in previous accounts: their inner nature completely
corresponds with their outer appearance: their eyes and features only
too distinctly show that their intellectual faculties are still slumber-
ing. Immediate want urges them to its gratification, the next hour be-
ing beyond reach of their mental ken. Mad jealousy and an implaca-
ble thirst for revenge that persecutes single individuals just as much as
it does whole Bribes and societies, are the only passions which these
crude children of nature give way to, and which, often controlled with
calculating cunning for years, suddenly burst out and prove the source
of bloody tragedies. All hurts pass unnoticed with none of their angry
passions rising, but without ever being eliminated from their memory.,
The time that the Warraus do* not devote to hunting or fishing they
spend idling in their hammocks, or playing with their hunting dogs ;
their only amusement, moreover, they find in their cane flute. Game
and fish constitute their chief nourishment, though they do not disdain
rats, monkeys, alligators, frogs, wormjs, caterpillars, larvae and beetles.
They are surprisingly adept in catching fish, which they capture partly
with hooks, partly with bow and arrow, or kill with light spears. If
the capture prove greater than the requirement, some of them will sun-
dry the surplus and bring it to town for sale, but such industrious ones
are only rarely met with. Meat, under these skies, turns bad withim
two or three hours, and if they want to keep it awhile for further use
so that, released from the chase, they can enjoy undisturbed rest, they
build a small staging about four-foot high with cross pieces resting on
the top of the four corner-posts stuck into thei ground : they spread the
flesh on this, the women keeping up a moderate fire beneath it for from
20 'to 24 hours. By this means the meat keeps good for some 5 to 6
days, but dry and without nourishment — this is especially the case with
four-footed animals.

431. The Warrau it is true eats little at a time, but therefore all
the more often. The usual hours for meals are 6 and 10 o'clock of a
morning, at noon, 3 in the afternoon, and the last one at sundown. Of
these five meals the first and last are the most copious. The wives are
only rarely permitted to eat in company with the men, and in the pres-
ence of strangers are never vouchsafed this honour : I subsequently noted
that this rule holds good among all the tribes!. Game is cooked in the
bloud of the animal, and strongly seasoned with Capsicum. If weather
permits, the Warrau takes his meal in front of his house. The wives
place the dish on the ground, and close by, a sort of plaited plate, with
the bread : after they have withdrawn, the men, squatting on their heels,
range themselves around the steaming pot, steep the bits of bread into
the brew and endeavour, with the help of their fingers, to pick the meat
from out of the vessel. As the five fingers sufficiently suffice for this
service, forks are naturally superfluous and unnecessary articles of lux-
ury. As soon as one's hunger is satisfied, he leaves the circle. When
the last male member has "left the table," the wives approach and must
be content with what is left: they nevertheless know how to secure
themselves against loss and accordingly make sure of Number One b{y
means of a lot of little pots which, filled with tit-bits, are hidden

WEDLOCK AND WIFELY DUTY. 12?

away in all corners of the house, and, after the men have retired, afford
them a more abundant mfeal.

432. Polygamy is commlonly indigenous among the Warraus. Every
kWarrau takes as many wives as he can support, or rather believes to be
necessary for looking after and attending to him. The chiefs mostly
possess a regular harem. Wedlock takes place at a very early age, and
I have often seen mothers who could hardly be eleven or twelve years
of age and yet possessed children of from one to two years old. Mar-
riage is not consecrated by any religious ceremony. The girl's parents
make a choice of bridegroom already of tenderest age and later on hand
her over to him without further formality. From the day that the
daughter is destined for him, he has to work for her parents until his
entrance into manhood. In this interval he showers every attention
on his youthful bride, decorates her with beads, and brings her the best
of what is procurable in the chase. 'As he becomes a man, he takes her
to where he thinks of building his house. When such a mutual arrange-
ment on the part of the parents has not taken place, 'the young people
follow their own inclinations. j\! visit <to the house of the orirl of his

choice and a few presents are the first distinctive signs of awakeneft
or already long-cherished love. If the plans of the parents are in full
agreement with the wishes of ttie wooers, the daughter will either become
his for a fixed present or be handed over 'to him by the parents upon
the fulfilment of services to be performed for them. In the latter case,
according to the value selt upon the bride, he has to work for a year or
still longer for her parents.

433. On completion of this term the young husband clears from bush
and 'trees a sufficient piece of land, and hands it over to fthe young
woman as her provision field which she now further cultivates and tills.
The man acquires his second, third, and fourth wife by means of gifts.
When the wife gets old, and this usually ^takes place already by the twen-
tieth year, the husband looks for another among the little girls of seven
to eight years of age : he hands this child to his eldest wife to bring up,
and the latter teaches her everything in the way of domestic duties until
she arrives at majturity, when she enters upon all the rights and duties
of the marriage state. But whatever number of wives a Warrau may
possess, yet the one first taken unmistakeably sways the sceptre before
which all her successors have to bow in matters of domestic concern.
The house-master usually has one or two favourite wives whom he never
lets away from his side but who accompany him on all his excursions.
434. Outside of hunting, fishing, and the manufacture of his
weapons and corials, the man considers every other occupation beneath
his dignity. On his return from the chase, or on completion of any other
business, he throws himself in his hammock and, swinging to and fro,
regards with indifference ttie labours and anxieties of his wives as they
attend to the house and fieM, manufacture the earthen pots, plait bask-
ets and mats, and attend to their children of tender age.

435. While their lord and master, still steeped in idle dreams is
rocking in his hamtaiock of a morning, the wives have left theirs long be-
fore and, after bathing in the stream close by, prepare the breakfast,

436. The simplicity of their lives, their scanty requirements, and the
ease with which the latter can be satisfied, because Nature freely and

128 MATERNITY HABITS,

plenteously offers them practically everything that they hold dear,
leave the greater part of the day unoccupied. From out of his ham-
mock the Warrau hastens to his meal, and back again when finished : in it
he sleeps, blows his simple reed-flute, o-r pulls out the scanty hairs of his
beard. In his hammock he carries on conversation with the occupants
of his own and neighbouring houses, or admires his beauty if he owns
a looking glass. For hours at a time he gazes with gratification in the
eyes of his double, wherein he finds the most faithful servant of his
vanity and with pride that is never satisfied daily admires the picture
afresh. As master of the house he thus passes the whole day in indolent
repose in a condition between sleeping and waking: already roused in
the earliest hours of the morning he tries to dispel the ennui until break
of day by keeping up a conversation with his neighbours, an evil habit
which, when we first went to stay among the Indians and before Time
made us indifferent to it, excited our lively indignation. The slavish
service of the women is not even interrupted at night: from sundown
until daybreak they keep the small fires burning underneath the ham-
mocks, to drive away the mosquitoes and keep the house warm.

437. For the rest, a few features in the social life of these children
of nature show that feelings of chastity and the sense of shame lie deep-
rooted in primitive human nature. This is especially the case with the
women : they appear retiring in the presence of strangers, disclose a shy
modesty (which is less conspicuous among the men) in their gait and
bearing, and as soon as their accoucliment begins to draw near betake
themselves out of the village where their husbands and relatives reside.
Alone, in a house in the forest, they await their time, which is without
danger for them*, and return with the new-born child to their own peo-
ple, without having claimed outside assistance.

438. Upon one of my excursions I myself came across such a lying-
in woman who was contemplating with the deepest maternal love the
little citizen of the world that had just been born. The colour of the
baby's skin was almost as white as that of a European girl, except that
the white verges slightly into yellow. The mother divides the navel-
string with her teeth, and ties it with a thread made from Bromelia Kar-
afas fibre. The Warraus, however, do not #eem quite to understand
the tying business as yet, because almost all kinds of abnormalities are
to be seen alt this spot.

439. After the mother has bathed herself and the new-born child
in the neighbouring stream, she hurries back to the village, where the
father of the house receives the congratulations of his friends, while his
wife goes about her business as before. It is strange that the children
are usually weaned only in their third or fourth year, so that the elder
often stands quietly in front of its mother, and takes its accustomed
nourishment from the one breast while the younger in its mother's arms
is sucking at the other. It nevertheless looked extremely laughable
when such a strapping youngster, as the one we had just noticed in the
extreme top of a Carica Papaya, suddenly climbed down the tree and
laden with its fruit hurried off to quench its thirst from mdther. Our
astonishment however was still further increased when we noticed four-
footed foster-brothers and sisters among the sucklings, to which the
mother, while perhaps her own child was already sucking nourishment

WAEBAU DANCE AT OEEALA ON THE CORENTYN.
CAEIB SETTLEMENT AT TOMATAI ON THE CORENTYN.

WOMAN'S SPHERE. 129

out; of the one b'reast, just as readily and with" equal fondness in face
and feature, would give the other. They were mostly young monkeys,
opossums, labas, acuris, and the like.

440. The pride of the women consists mainly in the possession of a
large number of tame domestic animals. What young mammals they can
therefore catch, they bring up on the breast, with the result that so
great an attachment is implanted in the creatures, especially the monk-
eys, that they will follow at their foster mother's heels.

441. So long as the child cannot yet run, it is as it were an insep-
arable portion of the mother's body : where the mother goes, there will
the child be, whether it be now carried on her back or on her 'armB.
Later on, it leaves her, goes its own way and mixes with those of iits own
age, till the longing for its customary food again leads it back to her.
for a few minutes.

442. Boys and girls from their earliest youth seem to be adept at
everything, particularly climbing, swimming etc.: I found little girls
of from four to five years of age often on the highest trees. The first
thing that the boy takes to when he arrives at the age of reason, are the
bow and arrows made for him by his faither or elder brother and the
acme of childish pride is reflected in his sparkling eyes if the arrow
hits the chosen target, small lizard, grasshopper, etc. He attains so
much vim, vigour and versatility by tumbling about upon the trees, I
might almost say by living continually amidst the denizens of the forest,
that he can soon accompany his father when on the chase and when
catching fish.

443. At juet an early, if not earlier age, the little girls assislt the
mother in the duties of the house, help with the baking of the bread, and
preparing the favourite drink, accompany her to the provision field, and
carry back to the house loads of cassava root under which a. European
girl of twice the age would sink to the ground.

444. Though the child is paid really but little attention by th<*
father, and on the other hand is almost foolishly beloved by the mother,
both nevertheless equally firmly fight shy of inflicting any corporal
punishment on their children, and even allow the more serious faults
and offences to pass unchastised.

445. The .tatu-ing, boring of the ears and nasal septum takes piece im-
mediately after birth, and the holes are kept open with little pieces of
wood. Of all the many games which are otherwise everywhere native
to children, I did not notice a single one among the Indian boys. Onte
sees the smaller ones like strapping hobgoblins tumbling around in the
dirt or else shooting with their little bows and arrows, while the larger
ones at most strive to, or do actually, take part in the dances of the
adults. It was curious to note the panicky fright to which we, but par-
ticularly our Blacks, gave rise. So as noways to come into touch with
us, they often went a long way round, and if I even stepped unnoticed
into their houses, it was then nothing else than as if the Evil One had
got them all by the scruff, when they scampered off shrieking and
squeaking like chaff before the wind. Even the semjblance alone of one
Of us wanting to rush their house was sufficient to drive them to
other side of the provision field,

130 COMMUNITY or PROPERTY,

446. Unfortunately the majority of the poor little chaps suffered al-
ready in their first year with bad kinds of eye-disease, and were so stilt'
with dirt and dust that it was a wonder to me how they managed to move
their fingers. To protect them, to a certain degree, from mosquito
bites, the mothers smear them almost daily with crab-oil which is squeez-
ed out of the Carapa guianensis fruit. Thus oiled over, the poor child
runs out into the dirt, where it rolls itself about to its heart's con-
tent : and with that begins the first cuticle. Next day the child is oiled
again, and with the result that a coat-of-mail of such a thickness is soon
developed that the mosquitoes only waste their bites and search for
blood in vain.

447. Among the Warraus the stepping of the girl front childhood in-
to puberty is notified by their robbing her of her long hair. A festive
dance is held at this ceremony when the girl appears decorated with
beads and has the white down of different birds, particularly that of the
Crax and Ardea attached with gum-resin to the smoothly shorn head, the
arms, and the thighs.

418. The entrance of boys into the ranks of men is not so simple a
matter: they have to undergo several ordeals to demonstrate their
strength and worth. These consist for the most part of painful wounds
that are cut into the breast and arms with the tusks of the wild boar or
the beak-tip of the toucan. If the boy bears this without pulling a face
or in any way betraying his sufferings by outward signs, he is allowed
henceforth to rank with the men. But if the childish heart has not yet
the power to control the suffering of pain by its strength of will, he
steps back to his old condition, till later proofs indicate increased force
of character.

449. In general, several families occupy one and the same house,
without corresponding partitions ,or dividing-walls being found in it.
The beams, from1 which the hammocks are suspended, the few stones to
build the hearth, the household implements, which like the wants of
the family are very simple and only consist of a few earthenware vessels
of different size and shape, the necessary gear for the preparation of
cassava bread, already mentioned, and the implements for hunting, fish-
ing and fighting constitute the whole household furniture of a Warrau
family. If, in addition to these, there is yet a looking-glass, a comb, a
gun, or an axe, — well, the highest ambitions of these simple children of
nature are gratified. The form of their earthenware has a classical ap-
pearance and has much resemblance with that of the Etruscans. The
women build these vessels off-hand and for the purpose utilise the clay
found on the banks of the forest streams: they dry their handiwork in
the sun and smear it with a varnish which is prepared from the soot of
pots already in use and the sticky juice of a Mimosa. When this is don<>
they put the pots and dislms in a heap and light a fire around, when they
let the earthenware gradually cool off.

450. The property of each single family is considered sacred by the
fellow-occupants of the house : an infringement of this never takes place :
they freely hand over their own goods to strangers and guests.

451. The settlements of the members of a tribe consist mostly of
from <3 to 10 houses, presided ovei- by a common chief, whose authority
however is only recognised to its full extent when conflicts have broken

RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS. 131

out with other tribes. Power and influence are here hot alone based
upon worth and position: this is determined by the degree of bodily
strength and the spirit of enterprise.

452. Tribal relationship is never derived from the father but always
from the mjother: the child of a Warrau buckeen and an Arawak is re-
garded as a Warrau. By the law of tribal-claim that of inheritance is
also regulated. The sons of the chief's daughters inherit the honours
of the grandfather and not his sons, although this is not by any means
Strongly insisted upon, because at the chief's death each one who feels
in himself the strength and ability for the honour may arise as pretend-
er without the late sovereign's family feeling their rights infringed or
demanding satisfaction. The Piai, Piatsong or Pache who is at the
same time sorcerer and doctor is regarded as the second important per-
isonage of every village after the chieftain. The Warraus regard thes<3
Piais with all the greater esteem and awe since the pride of their tribe
is bound up with them: they believe that their own sorcerers and doc-
tors are mightier than those of other Indians.

453. In their religious convictions almost all the tribes of British
Guiana correspond, at least in their main points. An infinitely sublime
Being is the creator of the world and of mankind, upon whose activ-
ities however the regulation and preservation of the world has so much
claim, that he cannot specially worry over the individual.* Gentleness,
benevolence, and kindness to his creatures are the chief attributes of
this supreme Being. Every pernicious influence that interferes with the
rest and happiness of his creatures — e.g. sickness, death, famine, in
short, every misfortune of life — cannot in the same way be traced back
to him, and accordingly, from the rough separation between Good and
Evil, Happiness and Misfortune, it must have another source. The
source of all the Wickedness and Bad is a host of subordinate Beings,
whose only pleasure consists in bestowing misery, strife, hatred, and
sickness on the human race. The Good is only a single Something, and
though it indicates its presence in different forms, it nevertheless unites
into one general feeling of Happiness, and hence there exists only one
Beneficent Being, the original source of creation, the prime source of all
Blessedness. With Evil, on the other hand, the question is different:
heterogeneous in its expressions, and always appearing divided and
sporadic in the interruption oi repose, it cannot be 'the outlet of one
Power, but mlust be the effect of the manifold forces of Evil Spirits.
These Beings, malevolent to mankind, the authors of all disease, and
every hardship, these spirits enjoying another's misfortune, whose hap-
piness is the pang of mortals, bear among the Warraus the name of
Yawahu.t

454. Amongst all mortals, the power is alone granted to the Piai
or sorcerer, through his secret arts, to counteract these damaging influ-
ences or to remove them to a distance. Every settlement possesses but
one such medicine-man, who, initiated deep into the nature of the world

* It is only fair to state that this is not the generally accepted view among: ethnologists
nowadays. See Roth's " Animism and Folk-lore among the Guiana Indians." (Ed.).

t There is evidently a mistake here : Yawahu is the Arawak term, Hebu the Warrau one
In section 455, the Warrau Piaiman'ij rattle is rightly called Haepu (Hebuj-masaro, (Ed.)

132 THE MEDICINE MAN.

of demons with which, so to speak, he is in continual rapport, makes!
them dependent upon him and slaves to his forms of exorcism. The
Piai is also priest, doctor, and sorcerer at one and the same time, a pow-
erful and feared individual who has it within his control whether to al-
low the persecution of his subject spirits to run a free course, or to
grant protection from their influences.

455. If a person in the village is sick, one immediately calls in the
Piai: he begins his exorcism in the evening for during the day he is
powerless and may only call upon the demon at night. The chief instru-
ment for this purpose consists of a sacred rattle (Haepu-masaro)t which
no profane hand dare touch without robbing it of its supernatural pow-
ers and making a child's toy of it. It consists of the cleaned-out gourd*
like fruit of the Crescentia Cujete Linn, in which small round but there-
with dissimilar openings are cut, while the whole is painted with differ-
ent colours. A long piece of wood which is run through the emptied
fruit and projects about a foot on either side, serves at one end as a han-
dle : the other is wound round with an accurately prescribed number of
wing-feathers of the Psitfacus aestivus, the tips of which are turned to-
wards the calabash. In the cavity itself are to be found several small
stones, bits of agate, and some variously coloured seeds.

456. Immediately after sundown the Piai commences his incantation
with this magic rattle, after having previously carefully quenched every
glowing ember inside the house, and removed its occupants. In varied
time, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, he now swings his rattle round
his head in a circle to the accompaniment of a monotonous song the;
tune of which is regulated by the rapidity of the swinging. These in-
troductory incantation-formulae one can often hear for more than an
hour. It is not to be denied that the sorcerer thereby seeks in many var-
ious ways to make the spirit subservient. The voice is soon raised and
seems to give an imperious order to the demon. It soon sounds softer
and sinks into a light almost inaudible whisper to soothe with soft
speech and entreaty the disfavour of the stubborn sprite, and along with
this the Piai puffs tobacco smoke out of a consecrated cigar and blow*
it at fixed intervals into the patient's face. If rain falls during the
ceremony, the medicine-man immediately ceases from his labours, and
resumes them again on the following night. When finally the strength
of the incantation-form/ulae has succeeded in forcing the spirit's pres-
ence into the house which according to the power possessed by the
Yawahu [Helm] happens sooner or later, then the second act of the work
of deliverance begins, the Piai transacting business with the refractory
demon. During this procedure two different voices are always to be dis-
tinguished, though the contracting parties take care that the particular
words are unintelligible to the invalid. The strange voice is stilled, and
the medicine-man is able to give the anxious patient an account of the
cause of the Yawahu's [Helm's] anger and the nature of the Sickness.
This explanation is at the beginning of the illness very confused and am-
biguous, like the most profound of the Pythian oracles. If the symptoms
of the disease increase, if they assume a dangerous character, so is the

f i.e. the Evil Spirit's Battle. See Section 453. (Ed).

MEREDITAR* PIAI-MEN. 133

exorcism ceremony repeated every evening, until Nature herself lends
help and mediates a favourable crisis. The might of the Piai has now,
forced the Yawahu [Helm] to tell him everything: this is of help to the
patient because the real seat of the disease is now known. The Piai ap-
proaches the hammock, puts his lips to the painful or most painful spot
and sucks away at this until after a time he draws out with his mouth
a number of fishbones, pieces of bone, thorns, etc. which the revengeful
and destructive Yawahu [Hebu] had by means of his black art hidden
inside the patient's body. The invalid's imagination now completes the
cure. A few remedies, mostly juices of plants, are employed to be sure :
the Piai however puts a value on them only in so far, as he dare hope,
that they thereby hasten to make the Evil Spirit confess.

457. But if the incantations manifest no power and every remedy,
drink, or form of sorcery fails to curb the Yawahu [Hebu] and the in-
valid finally dies, several ways of course remain open to the Piai to save
Ids face and explain the unfavourable issue. The invisible world of spir-
its is ever too powerful than to fear the weak race of men and the dis-
turbing influence of a Piai besides. Again, if the invalid or one of his
relatives or fellow- tribesmen has injured another Piai and aroused his
vengeance, the latter opposes exorcism to exorcism, and thereby frus*
trates the efforts of his fellow craftsman. It is not to be denied that
the latter reason supports the reputation of the Piai in general : one of
these godly men thus always refers to the power of another and, while
any person humbles himself before the one, he recognises the power of all.
When the sick man is laid to rest the Piai buries his rattle with him, for
it has henceforth lost its effects, the curative agency of the magic remedy
dying with the invalid.

458. The profession of a Piai remains hereditary in his family and
always passes on to the eldest son whom the father privately initiates into
the mysteries of his future dignities : when at last the father finds him-
self too weak to contend with the spirits he hands the business over to
his son under various ceremonies and consecrates him into his calling at
a festival. Amongst the ordeals to which such a candidate must submit
is especially the one of swallowing large quantities of strong tobacco
juice. He cannot venture upon making any claim to his father's hon-
ours unless able to imbibe at the public installation and act of consecra*
tion a whole calabash-full, without letting nature rebel against the hellish
juice, or any muscle of his face betray his inward abhorrence. If the
Piai does not possess a son, he selects a friend as successor, who has to
undergo a long term of instruction before being permitted to submit to
the ordeal.

459. Like the Brahmins of the East Indies, the dignity of the Piai is
attended with restrictions and burdensome considerations. For instance,
he must not eat the flesh of the larger animals, and must limit himself
in general to what is indigenous to Guiana: all kinds of animals intro-
duced by Europeans are debarred from, his table. Kemaining rules regu-
lating his food are no less severe. Successful cures are remunerated by
the patient in various ways.

460. There is a generally-spread belief in the continuance of the soul
after death, in a life of undimmed happiness and everlasting pleasure be*

MANUFACTUKE or PAIWAR!.

yond the grave, both among the Warraus as well as the different tribes
which I subsequently found opportunity of studying.*

401. The morality of the Indians has become specially imperilled by
the taste for liquor : it brings a new element into their crude souls and
poisons the sources of their virtue. Europeans have been blamed for
making choice of this terrible means to break the old-time strength of
the tribes and so render them tractable through weakness : but this is not
quite correct. Though the evil has indeed increased since the appearance
of the whites, whose self-interest has not remained innocent in the cor-
ruption of these people, they have not alone caused and introduced the
vice which now reigns to such an awful extent amongst the Indians.

402. Before the discovery of America these races were already cog-
nisant with intoxicating liquors which they prepared from palm-fruits,
cassava-bread, maize, and potatoes, while the Paiwari, still up to now
the favourite intoxicant of all the aborigines who have not yet entered
into intimate and regular relation with Europeans, is an inheritance from
the primitive times of their forefathers. Paiwari is made out of cas-
sava bread. For this purpose, the bread is baked thicker and much hard-
er than usual, so that the outer crust gets almost quite charred. After
breaking it up, the pieces are thrown into a big vessel and boiling water
poured over them. As soon as the mass has cooled, the women keep on
stirring it round with their hands, and chew it handful after handful
which brings it to a regular pap, to be spat into a second jug: by this
dirty means the fermentation is said to be hastened and, the drink to gain
markedly in intoxicaJting power. While the mlass is still fermenting it
is mixed with the juice of the sugar-cane and sweet po'tatoes.0 A second
drink, which is equally intoxicating, is prepared in the same way out of
sweet potatoes without further additions, but here the jug is carefully
covered with plantain-leaves.

403. The Mauritia flexiiosa, Linn, is a most useful tree for the War-
raus. There is hardly a portion of this magnificent palm, that is not
utilised for economic purposes by the aborigines, for which reason the.des-
cription given of it by missionary Gumilla in his account of the Orinoco
as the "Arbol de la Vida (Tree of Life)" is quite intelligible. The fan-
like fronds supply the Warraus with a covering for their houses, the
frond-fibres are made into hammock thread, and changed into rope, the
pith contains a sort of sago which, especially with a failure in the cas-
sava crop, constitutes their daily food, and the sheath-like base of the leaf-
stalk gives material for the simple sandals of the savannah residents.
Moreover, the fruits, something like fir-cones, after soaking for several
days in water, afford a tit-bit that is much sought after, and the delicious
sap of the tree which, pressing out of the openings made in the trunk for
the purpose, easily changes into a very intoxicating wine-like drink. Why,
even after death the palm continues to serve the Indians: it forms the
store-house of a new dainty for them, the larva of a large beetle (Calan-
dra palmar um) which customarily lays its eggs in the dead trunk. These

* See Roth op. cit. (Ed.)

• The Macusis use neither oue nor the other iu the mauuf acture of their Paiwari, (Ed.)

COMPUTATION or TIM£ AND VALUES. 135

larvae, held in high esteem by the aborigines, have quite the shape qf our
may-bug grubs, buit are certainly as large again.

464. The Warraus have no fixed division or method of computing
time at all, and hence the practical impossibility of stating with certain-
ty how old an adult or grey-head may be. If one judges the approximate
age from the features and especially from the whole general appearance,
or from the white hair which otherwise is usually rare, the estimate i-J
nevertheless deceptive in many cases of old and young, particularly when
applied by Europeans who do not always bear in mind the variations in
these strange natures.

465. They borrow a dubious and, within narrow limits, restricted
classification of time from the phases of the moon and the rainy seas-
ons : but if their observations exceed the number of fingers and toes, the
annals are closed, and everything receives the term of "many." If they
want to express a large number, they lift up as much of the hair of the
head as they can seize in the fingers. All measures of the past they date
from some occurrence or other that had exercised an essential influence
upon their lives of upon their ways of looking at things (Anschauungs-
iceise), and I am quite convinced that with our visit there dawned a new
era for all the tribes with whom we came in contact : this new epoch will
last until some other important event forces the remembrance of our
presence into the background.

466. They also showed equal inexperience and want of calculation in
determining exchange values for the objects they offered us, even up to
the last day of our visit at Cumaka. In barter like that, their immed-
iate requirement or spontaneous desire forms the basis of the article's
worth. Thus one Indian will ask a gun, an axe, etc. for some object or
other which another standing close by will exchange for a couple of fish
hooks, some beads, or a comb. No one can imagine even remotely the
disproportion in value that exists between what the two men require.

467. The time of our departure from Cum,aka was drawing nigh, and
we commenced arranging our baggage afresh. Warned by the experience
of former travellers in the tropics, I had packed my natural history 'col'
lections in almost hermetically sealed boxes and hoped to have protect-
ed their contents completely from the damp. Now that we were proceed-
ing farther and farther away from the coast and could manage without
the water-casks, my brother handed these over to me : they formed homes
for my living orchids, and relieved me of the care with which I had hith-
erto looked after them. The bottoms of the casks were knocked out, and
the pride of my collections, 83 different species of living specimens, plac-
ed inside.

468. Arrangements were completed by the 14th June, and in the even-
ing I stood full of hope over my well-packed corial : for the following day
would deckle whether it corresponded with my expectations. The collec-
tions included the first results of my labours on behalf of the Natural
History Institution of my native country, and I readily dreamed of the
days when I should once more greet in Berlin these children of the wil-
derness : I already saw in niy mind's eye several of the beautiful orchids
making one of the loveliest shows of the orchid-house in the Botanical
Gardens at Schoneberg.

136 BREAKING CAMP AND MOVING ON.

469. My three Warraus whom I had hired as paddlers were strong
and smart men, and the friendly relations existing between us gave prom-
ise that they would exert themselves to the utmost in carrying out uiy
wishes. My joy was increased by the thought that I was now an inde-
pendent gentleman and a ship-owner, and could also hurry on ahead of
the noisy and disorderly flotilla. My clamorous companions had often
frightened far away into the distance the mammals' and feathered occu-
pants of the banks long before I could get within gunshot, .they had also
taken no notice of my requests to wait a minute for me to loosen from
off the trees standing close by the orchids that looked so tempting amidst
the green. I could now follow my own inclinations, hurry ahead, or re-
main behind the little flotilla, secure the unsuspecting residents of the
banks, or gather the lovely blossoms from the trees : an extra effort in-
variably brought us up with our companions shortly after.

470. On account of Caberalli, the Arawak chief, as well as Maker-
wari, having to accompany Mr. King to Georgetown, the little fleet, my
boat included, was increased by three corials, because the proud chief
could not appear in the capital without an escort proportionate to his
dignity.

471. Sunrise saw the whole of Cumaka, which is situate in
8°12'2"lat.N. and 59°44' long.W., in the most lively state of confusion.
This one* had forgotten something, and hurried off to fetch it, 'that one
wanted to see the white people once more, or press Maicerwari's hand
again in farewell, while another lot hustled off ahead to the landing, or
were now streaming towards it.

472. The vivid picture presented by the river banks showed up also in
the boats. Innumerable tame monkeys and parrots which the crews had
bartered to take with them to Georgetown, sa't with one foot tied, upon
the perches for which every vacant space was utilised and raised their
shrieking screamy voices in noisy chorus. Neveiftheless I had taken into
my boat eight such unruly passengers : they seemed to feel the pangs of
parting from their recent homes and to share the melancholy of the
women who had minded them ever since they were fledged.

473. Everything was finally arranged, everybody had fallen into
place and amidst the shouts from the Cumaka villagers and visitors col-
lected at the water-side, — shouts which our corials returned with equal
vigour — the crew set their paddles going and our acquaintances on shore
soon passed out of sight. Struck with astonishment, our feathered friends
of many colours cast wondering looks at the rocky motion and apparent
flight of the trees and banks, their red shiny pupils now enlarging, and
again diminishing. The cry of joy with which certain of their mates
greeted the early morn and matutinal sun-beams as they winged their
way over the river, called upon them to follow : their fetters alone\;stemm-
ed their flight which they had to limit to a lively flapping and increased
screaming. Such frustrated attempts were usually followed by
violent conflicts among the captives themselves, squabbles which the
voices of the Indians could hardly allay : every note of their free brothers
upon the trees along the banks occasioned fresh fluster, confusion and
noise.

474. We soon reached to where the Aruka discharges into the Bar-
inia, along which we continued our journey upstream in an East-South-

SAMLET LOSES His TEMPER.

Easterly direction. As a result of the almost incessant rain its banks
were no longer in a condition to regulate and curb the mass of water and
our paddlers had to exert all their efforts to resist the force of the dark
waters bearing down on them. The vegetation towering above the sur-
face of the water, Rhizophora, 'Avicennia, Laguncularia and Conocarpus
continued to display quite the character of a coastal stream exposed to
tidal influence. Our progress also felt its effects for, with the entrance
of the flood, the waves which had hindered our advance, started to stream
in the direction we wanted and our corial followed in rapid course.

475. Evening soon drew nigh and found us still searching in vain for
a dry and safe spot where we could light a fire and sling our hammocks
for the night: we saw nothing but a huge stretch of water until at last,a
cry of delight on the part of the Indians showed that they had found one.
We noticed on our right a dark place prominent above the water, and wo
eagerly paddled in its direction. Several palm-trunks laid one over the
other showed that the situation had already served as a night-sherler for
travelling Indians, and although the last few days' rising flood had al-
ready repeatedly submerged this temporary bridge, and the spot was
hardly visible above the surface of the water, we nevertheless determin-
ed to put in here: naturally not even a comfortable fire was permitted
us, because the heavy showers of rain in the afternoon had soaked the
wood, and all attempts at lighting it only produced regular thick clouds
of smoke, but no flame. Even Hamlet, the imperturbable and indefati-
gable Hamlet lost his temper : his subdued cursing betrayed the bitter-
ness with which he regarded the moist timber, and he ineffectually squan-
dered the breath of his powerful chest in trying to provide the fire re-
quisite for a warm supper.

476. The myriads of mosquitoes, the distant din and crashing to-
gether of the trees on the riverside uprooted by the flood, together with
the noisy fall of rain banished sleep from our eyes and made the night
one of the most horrible through which I had yet had to keep awake.

477. With darkness hiding the swelling of the stream, we were not
a little surprised when an Indian, who by chance had left his hammock
before dawn, called to warn us that the waters had commenced to sink
the camp. We naturally hurned as quickly as possible to our corials,
while Hamlet, swearing away, was searching for kitchen-ware in mud and
water mixed. "Well! I'm damned," he called out: "everyone wants me
to help him with his feed, 'but nobody wants to help me with m|y pots and
pans."

478. After reaching the edge of the bank, we followed it, very glad
at having escaped the insidious water. Countless swarms of ! the dainty
swallow, Hirundo fasciata Lath., joined in our rejoicings: they had perch-
ed upon the barren branches of trees, long since sunk, projecting out of
the water, and flew for a few minutes from their favourite resting-places
as we approached, but quickly returned almost before we had passed.

479. In the course of this monotonous day during which we only
came across isolated specimens of the large king-fisher, Alcedo torquata
Linn. Gm., we reached the mouth of the Kaituma which flows into the
Barima from the South on its left bank. According to the edging of its
shores, the width of its mouth must amount to 200 feet. My Warraus
informed me that the Kaituma banks were occupied by Warraus and

138 How INTOXICATED WoMEtf AKE TREATED.

Waikas and that it was also connected with the upper Barima by means
of several forest creeks of which a large number poured here into the
main sitream.

480. We would have searched again in vain to-day for a place to
camp in, and have therefore had to continue travelling all night through
torrents of rain, had not our boat-hands exerted their very utmost to
reach the Warrau settlement of Honobo if possible before sundown.

481. The sun was still on the edge of the horizon when the dull thud
of Indian drums and the distant sound of distracted singing were wafted
to us on the breeze. The first notes to be recognised worked like an elec-
tric shock on the muscles and nerves of our paddlers : the boats sped fast
towards the tempting tune and the delicate ears of our Indians soon di-
vined that the Warraus were gathered for a drinking party. The gal-
lant pullers, dumb and sullen up to then, felt cheered at the prospect of
the Paiwari awaiting them, and naturally encouraged one another to be-
stir themselves.

482. We soon reached on the left shore the mouth of the Honobo,
a small forest stream on the bank of which the settlement of the same
name was situate. The high level of the water rendered it easier for us
f o follow its snake-like course and after a short while Honobo village lay
before us on a small hummock. 'As our Indians recognised the first
house-roof, they burst into a general shout to notify the residents that
fresh guests were about to glorify the feast. This attracted the villa-
gers in a body to the landing, where they greeted us with a turmoil of
wild delight. In the centre of the company we noticed a figure in Euro-
pean clothes, on either side of whom stood a man with a drum, and the
closer we came the louder they beat their instruments.

483. In the midst of this deafening din, we jumped ashore where we
were welcomed by the dressed-up individual, chief Marawari, who im-
mediately stepped forward from out the midst of his wives. The fir^t
look at him showed that the Paiwari had preserved its strength and al-
most overpowered him. Some of his spouses had also allowed themselves
to be so carried away in the general rejoicings that they found it just as
difficult to keep their balance as their lord and master. Accompanied by
the tottering and staggering populace we reached) the settlement that con-
sisted of five houses surrounded with flourishing provision-fields. On
looking round the buildings, of which, at the invitation of the chief, we
were to pick one for our stay, we noticed several individuals who had al-
ready become a sacrifice to the awful brew, and succumbing to it, had
betaken themselves back into their quarters. Scared at the sight, we were
just about to pitch our tent when the wild screams of ja, woman once more
excited our curiosity and led us to one of the houses where we heard a
buckeen raving inside a closed hammock. We learnt from Mara war!
that it was one of his loving wives who had drunk more than she could
carry : when the sewn-up duenna noticed that strangers were close by, she
started yelling still louder and at the same time exerted all her strength
to free herself from out of her straight-jacket. The lord and master
seemed to have learnt from repeated experience the most effectual pallia-
tive method for mitigating her awful screams. He set the hammock
rocking violently, a movement that was further increased by the obstin-
acy of the beauty inside. The shrieks of the prisoner became ever weak-

A PuiMirivE CAJJE CRUSHED. 139

er, and soon gave way to other sounds which only too clearly indicated
that the drink swallowed in superfluity had discovered an outlet.

484. Caberalli informed us that this was the usual method in similar
cases. "If the drink at our feasts," he told us, "commences to take ef-
fect and give rise to quarrels, we try to get the angered parties close to
the house, where they are unexpectedly seized, and sewn up so tightly
in their hammocks, that no exertion, no struggling can free them. The
continued swinging increases their giddiness and after a short while their
passions die away in a deep sleep." Truly an excellent method worthy
of being copied in many a society in Europe. Though I had come across
people as passionately fond of intoxicants as those at Cumaka, I had
never yet seen any so overpowered and no longer master of their senses.

485. The delight of our Indians was soon turned into extreme annoy-
ance, on discovering their hopes of joining the feast shattered owing to
the drink having been drained to the last drop, although the huge trough
appeared to have contained a,t least 200 quarts. In front of the chief's
house lay an immense heap of pressed-out sugar-cane the juice of which
had been used in its manufacture.

486. In their talent for imitation, the Indians could only be beaten
by few other peoples, the simple sugar-mill we saw here affording a
fresh demonstration of it : it was decidedly a facsimile and fulfilled its
purpose admirably. Two strong side-posts several feet apart were
rammed tightly into the ground : between these posts were fixed two
strong rounded tree-trunks that almost touched each other, and could be
revolved by two winches with ease. When they want to squeeze out the
juice, each two of four women take a winch and set the rollers in motion,
while a fifth puts the cane-stump in the intervening space between, the
expressed juice being caught in a vessel beneath.*

487. Half an hour's quiet had hardly been restored in the hammock
when the yelling in it started afresh : the lightening of her stomach and
the effects of o-ur strange appearance may have moderated her intox-
ication somewhat. The wide meshes of the hammock allowed of her sat-
isfying her curiosity and I don't know what sort of terrifying picture
her drink-bedimmed fancy painted at sight of our white and black faces,
but her yelling increased to such an extent tha|t we begged the chief to
spare our ears the awful treat and loose her from her bonds. Hardly was
this done than she glared alt us with eyes rolling in terror and, moving
ber whole body about in a ghastly fashion, pitched her voice to its utmost
limits, un^il she was finally dragged by three of her fellow-wives to a
distant house, whence the raving clamour continued to reach us long
after.

488. I was extremely surprised at finding several lemon and .orange
trees which, together with Bixa, Orellana Linn., and a number of Anacar-
dium occidentale Linn, were growing around their houses; and in their
rich provision-fields. The latter were regularly covered with their fleshy
luscious dark-coloured swollen fruit-stalks: these have a very pleasant
sour-sweet taste and are also utilised by the Indians for the manufacture
of a pleasant cooling drink. The peculiar kidney-shaped stony pericarp

* This form of apparatus is now practically obsolete, it having given way to the far
simpler construction based on the principle of a lever. (Ed.)

J40 STOCKLE GETS INTO TROUBLE AGAIN.

is set on the; tip of the fruit-stalk : a sharp corrosive oil developes between
its two folds and has to be carefully removed before opening the seeds
on account of its having strongly caustic properties : the kernels have
a sweet pleasant taste, and are even much more palatable if roasted on
the coals. Friend Stockle seemed to have found at last in these seeds
something that the Wurtemberg hazel-nuts and sweet chestnuts, of which
he had already told me so much about, bore no comparison with. After
enjoying a treat with the roasted ones that we had given him, he wanted
to try them fresh and raw. Careless as ever, he dreamtt of nothing sus-
picious in the harmless kernel, and before he could be warned had put
one in his mouth, with the result that a spectacle similar to the one that
had presented itself in his unfortunate attempt at angling on the Orinoco
was now repeated. With mouth alternately closed and gasping for
breath, he circled round us like a lunatic, shouting anxiously for help.
The caustic oil had so burnt his lips and tongue that both became quite
black and writhin a few days were completely skinned. He took another
oath : on the Orinoco he had sworn never to touch a fishing rod again,
and here he cursed the blankety seeds and declared that he would spurn
them for ever. Wood that is smeared with this oil can be preserved from
decay and worms. A semi-transparent gum that possesses all the pro-
perties of gum arable exudes from the trunk of the 'Anacardium.

489. The Crescentia Cujete Linn, which I also saw for the first time,
appeared here in grealt quantity. The Indians prepare their calabashes
or drinking-cnps from the fruit of this low-growing tree: they divide it
into two halves, clean out and dry, and make them into all sizes of the
neatest drinking vessels.

490. On the outermost edging of the provision fields, there grew a
number of flowering trumpet-trees (Cecropia peltata Linn.) the smooth
white-grey trunks and deeply -lobed greenish-grey leaves of which formed
an extremely pretfty play of colour with the dark-green background of the
thick forest. The limbs always branching off at right-angles from the
trunk give the tree quite a peculiar appearance. The extensive ramifi-
cations of its roots that spread in a wide circle around a forest of young
shoots, are the worst enemies of the sugar plantations, from which they
can only be kept removed with the greatest care.

491. As we wanted to resume our journey by break of day, the whole
village was already up and about before sunrise : and hardly had we
jumped out of our hammocks than Marawari appeared before us accom-
panied by the whole of his harem, to bid us "good day," and, good gra-
cious ! surrounded by his wives in a complete suit of Nature : his own
over-coat had been changed for a modern dress-one. What is the pride
of a perfect drawing-room dandy as compared with the feeling of im-
pressive worth that swells the breast of such a child of nature? Every
look, every expression of his swarthy countenance, every movement of
his body betrayed the keenest gratification of his vanity and the arro-
gant confidence in himself. To make the already happy fellow still hap-
pier, if that were possible, Ve enriched his wardrobe with a few odds and
ends that were still lacking, and found our reward in the liveliest expres-
sions of delight on the part of the vain soul. So that the hareai, who

BAKIMA CHANGES ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 141

contrary to all the rules of gallantry had l>een slighted, should not de-
part quite empty-handed, we gave the beauties at least a few strings
of beads. Curious to see the disturber of yesterday's peace, we asked
Marawari to produce her : he pointed to his eldest wife who, still shy,
was hiding behind the younger women.

492. The black lips of poor Stockle to-day presented a truly awful
sight, which became still more ghastly through the fearful facial distor-
tions consequent on the stinging pain. Our kindly cook, Hamlet, also
sneaked up to Dr. Echlin and complained of a terrible stomach-ach^
which, as we learnt on closer investigation, was also the result of too
much indulgence in the fruits of the Anacardium, the Cashew of the
Colonists.

493. Immediately after sunrise we left Honobo and turned back into
the Barima. And the farther we followed it up the more it lost its char-
acter of a coastal stream. The Rhizophora, Avicennia, and Conocarpm
gradually disappeared, to be replaced by Mimosae, Rubiaceae, and Laur-
ineae. The banks were beset with pleasant underwood which, with its
copious branches often covered whole areas of the water-edge. Besides!
the scarlet-red brushes of the magnificent Combretum laxum Aubl. and
Cacoucia coccinea Aubl. the large white plume-like flower-clusters of the
Inga were especially conspicuous in this river-side covering, the surest
sign that the salty water and its influence upon fthe vegetation were be-
ginning to disappear, although the river still continued to share in the
movements of the tide except that it was visible here some 40 minute;*
later than in the lower reaches, and showed pretty well 6i hours flood,
and only five hours ebb. The small tributary Maruiwa or Whomana the
mouth of which we soon reached forms a second waterway to the Waini
in conjunction with the Waburina, Sabaina, Iterite, and Morebo.

494. Every stroke of the paddle displayed some new charm in the
banks. The Inga bushes alternated in an extraordinary play of colour
with Dichorisandra Aubletiana Sclmlt., Justinia coccinea Aubl., Ucri&na
Humboldtii Spreng., and Lisyanthus cocrulescens Aubl. The densely
interwoven Spermacoce formed a motley-coloured screen past which the
corial quickly hurried, while the beautiful blossoms of Garolinea prin-
ceps Linn, shone at us in the far distance, or their branches, sinking with
the weight of their large and heavy fruits, bent themselves down over
the stream. The peculiarly constructed flowers of the Marcgravia lapp-
ed the surface of the water while the large blossoms of its generic sis-
ter, the Norantea guianensis Aubl. proudly over-ran the highest tree-tops.
A number of elegant but wholly spine-enveloped palms, Bactris acantho-
carpa Mart., laden with their red fruits, enhanced the lovely landscape
still more. In the deeper background, further removed from the river-
side, the palms appeared less prominent, their place being taken by the
noblest species of forest trees, where a display was made of Lecytlils
parviflora Aubl., the glorious DimorpJia grandiflora Willd., Swartzia
tomentosa D.C., Byrsonima altissima B.C., and Epcrna fnlcata Aubl.,
from which the runners of numerous Bignonias overburdend with blos-
som hung down in fairy-like festoons.

495. The Animal Kingdom vied with the Vegetable for fullness.
Whole swarms of those grand-plumaged birds 'Ampelis rubricollis Tern,
raised plenty of chatter as they fluttered around the floral finery of the

142 A NEW WATHUTJ SETTLEMENT.

tree tops, but my Indians who knew how, fco imitate their peculiar note
in the most deceptive manner, decoyed them down onto the lowest
branches within range of our guns. The "Ampelis Cayana Linn, also put
in an appearance, and complete chains of dainty ducks (Anas autum-
nalis) that mostly perched upon the branches of sunken trees emerging
above the water, proved an easy prey for us.

496. Of all our Indian friends, my doings, collecting, and skinning
seemed to afford the greatest pleasure to Caberalli, the chieftain. If I
hurried ahead of the flotilla with my corial he followed on with his : if
I stayed behind, he also gave Ms paddlers a rest. Shaking his head,
wrapped in its red cloth, folding his arms and smiling, he stayed in front
of his corial-tent and did nothing else but eat, drink, and with a friendly
glance notify me of his attentiveness : thus contented, he never once took
the weapon in his hand to help me shoot.

497. Some hills bounding both sides of the horizon, the first rising
ground to be seen, showed up a few hours after passing the mouth of the
Maruiwa, and upon onet on the left bank we noticed a pleasant house
which dementi the Warrau chief haft erected for his own residence. It
beckoned to us so invitingly that we determined to stop and spend the
night under its roof.

498. As the range of hills did not directly touch the banks of the
stream, and the intervening space was swamped with the flood tide and
present high state of the water, we found that the river folk had built
a strong durable bridge up to the foofc of the rise out of the trees that
had all been felled along a certain width on the flat. In several places
this bridge was, it is true, so narrow that we had to keep very careful
balance lest we should have to appear dripping wet before the chief. The
Indians possess great skill in keeping their equilibrium and many of o«r
companions, laden with plenty of heavy baggage hurried lightly and safe-
ly over the slender path : even the Indian carrying Mr. Hancock who,
on account of the unfortunate condition of his feet, could noit walk a step,
trotted with his load along these narrow trunks as securely as if he were
proceeding comfortably over the widest flat.

499. In spite of the noisy sport we made in endeavouring to keep our
balance, nobody shewed up at the top, on reaching which there rose in
front of us the desirable dwelling, a Warrau housei, which markedly dif-
fered from all others I had hitherto seen : not only was it a two-storeyed
one, but it wras supplied with a gallery running all the way round. The
chief was sitting in a stiff and starchy aftitude on a stool in the centre
of the building. He was clothed in a blue dress-coat with the collar
turned up at the back, and in white trousers, and without '.getting up,
gave us a long speech, the meaning of which in short was that he had
already received intelligence of our coming, tha*t we were welcome, and
that he was pleased to offer us his house to stay in: the upper storev
nevertheless was only intended for his friend Mr. King who in future
would occupy it on his annual four of inspection.

500. The chiefs moderately large harem who were busy weaving
hammocks reviewed us with inquisitive gaze. As soon as one of thess

t Evidently the present Mouut Terminus. See Sect 505.— (Ed).

MR. KING DECLINES His STATE ROOM. 143

hospitable ladies noticed Hamlet making a start with his cooking utensils,
she brought out a number of yams, potatoes, and a calabash covered with
leaves beneath, which squirmed a whole lot of larvae of Calandra pal-
marum (the Grogru of the negroes). Hamlet, who ruled and surveyed
everything relative to his department with the eye of an eagle, and knew
the most suitable ways of serving up the most out-of-the-way things, ap-
proached me with triumphant mien and assured me that when stewed in
fat this grub, which we so contemptuously disdained, would prove to be
the daintiest dish upon our table.

501. dementi occupied these pleasant quarters in company with his
harem, his two step-sons, a number of lean and yelping dogs that took a
long time before reconciling themselves to our presence, still larger quan-
tities of Parrots, Hokko hens (Crax alector), Trumpet birds (Psophia
crepitans Linn.), Jakus (Penelope cristata), and beautiful Sun-birds
(Eurypyga Helias) which, with long-stretched neck, regarded us in sur-
prise, and quickly flew to a distance as we drew near. The beautiful
plumage — a mixture of grey, yellow, green, black, white, and brown — •
makes the last-mentioned one of the loveliest birds in this district so full
of brilliant ones, especially when it spreads its wings and tail like a
turkey-cock and lets their colours glisten and shift in the sunshine. Its
nourishment consists only of flies and insects which it pursues with such
skill that they seldom escape. Ever on the move and turning its head
in all directions, it searches the ground and leaves of low bushes for food.
Directly an insect is detected it curbs its gait, sneaks slowly on, and then
by a sudden stretch of the neck quickly seizes and swallows its unsuspect-
ing victim. I found the tame Trumpet-birds equally interesting: they were
Iso devoted to their mistress that they followed her every step like a faith-
ful domestic animal and all the time boomed out their deep bass notes
which they have "to thank for the name applied to them.

502. Hardly had we taken possession of the lower portion of the
house, than curiosity prompted Mr. King to inspect his room which
reduced itself to a small compartment made from the split young trunks
of Euterpe oleracea which were fastened with vine-rope instead of nails :
it was a sort of fowl-coop reached by a ladder. Immediately after our
arrival dementi had asked for Mr. King's hammock and already slung'
it there. Hardly had we got clown again by ourselves than Mr. King, to
dementi's very great surprise, followed us with his hammock. The hon-
our showered on him by dementi in the way of reserved State Apart-
ments and the slight put upon us had so tickled King's fancy at our ex-
pense that we now returned him all his over-confident chaff in the most
good-natured style, when he was at last forced to exclaim : — "]STo, do what
yon like. You can tease me as much a& you please, I'll stand it all right
so long as I haven't to go back to that smoke-hole with the fumes of all
these fires almost stifling me." His woe-begone face reflected itself in
that of Clementi whose previous merriment had disappeared and whose
brows had become darkly clouded : he went fretting from one corner of
the house to the other, climbed up the ladder quite four or five times to
satisfy himself of the truth of the reproach and finally drew the conclus-
ion that "white men don't know what they want."

503. Hamlet's dish, the larvae stewed in fat, was tolerable. Our in-
yentive cook stood waiting at a distance to note the appreciation bestow*

144 SORCERER FAILS TO BLOW AWAY BAIN.

ed by us on the glorified grogni — but When he shortly after saw Glascott,
Hancock and myself laying hold of the roast ducks, he angrily stamped
on the ground as much as to say that the Europeans knew just as little
about what tasted good as those did. The general expression of cheeri-
ness that ruled our table to-day was still further increased at the sight
of the clouds breaking after a lengthy period of gloom and jmist, and
finally promising us a pleasant and cloudless night, a promise in which
we were not deceived. My brother hurriedly set up his instruments and
soon found that Warina Village was situate 7050'15"lat.N. and 59°2t'30"
long.W.

504. It might have been about 2 o'clock when we were roused from
sleep by dementi's loud conversation with the Indians. Although this
was nothing exactly unusual, such talk however had not commenced at so
early an hour either in Cumaka or in Honobo. On awaking we noted
that the sky had again dashed aside our hopes and had wrapped itself
once more in its dark drapery. Not a star was; visible, and the rain pour-
ed down anew in thick streams. To take our departure was out of the
question and all dementi's magic spells with which he attempted to mas-
ter the rain proved fruitless. He stood in front of the house gesticulat-
ing most violently, as if he wanted to break off the clouds, and forcibly
inflating his cheeks as if then to blow them away. He continued at this
manoeuvre, until his lungs refused him further service when, by gaining
renewed strength through muttering some spells, he started blowing and
swinging again. We had long watched his senseless exertion with re-
strained laughter, till it finally gave way to such an outburst as even to
silence the noise of the rain : our gaiety however did not in the slightest
degree appear to upset the sorcerer's composure : it was rather a case of
his movements becoming still more lively, and it was only after half an
hour's efforts that, convinced of the powerlessness <of his art, he withdrew
peevishly into his hammock. About 11 o'clock the sky finally cleared a
little and the rain slackened : this was of course due to the incanta-
tions of dementi whose eyes now sparkled with pride and joy. '

505. The range of hills stretched in a Northern and Southerly direc-
tion, N. 12° S., and S. 12° W., and the one upon which dementi's house
had been built was 70 feet above the Barima water-level. We noticed
upon their slopes a flourishing growth of all the plants thalt are usually
found in an Indian's field. The upper layers of the ground consisted of
a fat, ochreous clay which was plentifully mixed with mould, pebble, and
sand : this tract must be exquisitely adapted for coffee-growing because a
vast quantity of ferruginous hardened-clay boulders specially assures the
necessary moisture for its prosperous cultivation.

506. At one o'clock we finally left in company with Clementi where-
by our flotilla was considerably increased : for besides his two step-sons
and his two favourite wives he brought his entire wardrobe. This con-
sisted of some coloured cotton shirts, a white jacket, the blue dress-coat
and some white trousers: at the last moment there was even displayed
a hat-box, out of which he took a light blue felt hat which, in spite of its
evident decrepitude, was carefully rolled in paper, probably the wrapper
in which he may have received ijt when bartered for in Georgetown. With
folded arms he gave directions to his wives as thev were packing all these

STRANGE ALLIANCE BETWEEN BIRDS AND INSECTS. 145

treasures, together with his hammock, in a large clean plaited basket, he
now and again vouchsafing a side-glance, to see what impression these
valuables were making upon us. After the ladies had supplied them-
selves with the necesvsary cooking utensils, the fishing apparatus, and a
large supply of bread, the procession finally made a start. Previous to
their departure however, the women had still to contend with their num-
erous dogs which had long been impatiently watching the preparations
for the journey, and now howling with glee, jumped up to1 follow us :
place in the canoe was only allowed for two of the favourite ones.

507. We were soon again paddling vigorously up the Barima until
a huge tree on the water-side, from which hundreds of purse-shaped
nests of Casswu* cristatus'Dsiud.. were dependent, attracted my whole at-
tention. After a cursory estimate I counted over three hundred of them.
Equally curious ns 'their association during the breeding season, is the
fact that on each occasion these birds select a tree upon which, as well as
its branches, the nests of Vespa nidulans and Mono are already to 1)3
found : they form a regular offensive and defensive alliance wi/th these
Insects. Xone of their numerous enemies, no monkey, no tiger-cat, dare
Approach either the ego's or the young, so Ions: as both the allied nations
live in unison with each other. It was just the breeding s'eason and the
most active life reigning in the Republic, though a shot from one of I he
Indian's canoes nevertheless spread snob fright amongst the harmless1
little people tha^ male and female flew off in wild confusion.

508. The Curiye, a small forest stream on our left, the mouth of which
we soon passed, offered a new way of communication which nevertheless
can only be used by small canoes between the Maruiwa and Waini.

509. When our negro crew felt their energy on the wane, one of them
would start a song, and bring renewed vim and faster stroke to the pad-
dling: it put wings on the corial as the conductor completed the first
strophe which he intimated by striking the water with the flat of the
paddle in a peculiar manner, and the others repeated in chorus the words
that had been sung. The security and ease with which the negroes han-
dled the corial were shewn to a still greater degree by the Indians. Every
corial has of course several seats made ou't of round bars as thick as
one's arm, though the Indians nevertheless preferred to occupy the out-
ermost edge of the vessel and knew how to arrange themselves so that
the balance was never upset: the anxiety which we continually exper-
ienced in their midst, aroused a pitiful smile from them. It is astonish-
ing that their body is by no means hardened against the external influ-
ence of temperature and weather, as one would have expected from their
\vhole way of living, for even a light shower will make their whole body
shiver. If they are caught in the rain when travelling by water, they
first of all try to meet Heaven's disfavour with equanimity, and paddle
more energetically, so as to get warm : if the shower declines coming to
an end, they pull in the paddles, huddle up together, and let the boat-
drift quietly with the current. They never think of protecting them-
selves with- their clothes, but are far ralther induced by a distant little
cloud to take them off and hide them from the rain threatening. This
very day however was of such a kind as to put not only their own
patience but also ours to a severe test: it caused us finally to steer to-
wards a small inlet which dementi pointed out as the landing of his

146 THE MIDNIGHT RACONTETJH,

one-time settlement (Warina), where we still ought to find a few Indian
houses. The path to them led through a flourishing cassava field the
stalks of which reached a height of from 8 to 10 feet and formed a reg-
ular arcade.

510. The houses were the most miserable I had hitherto seen and
together with their occupants, some 10 in number, were so covered with
dirt that we Europeans could not stand the sight of them. A frightful
eye-disease, to which they all were subject, offered a picture that struck
Still further terror. In some, the eyes were entirely suffused with
blood, whilst in others the disease had forced the eye-ball out of the sock-
et: the poor neglected children particularly suffered in this way because
the mothers, indifferent to their little ones' sufferings, had not even re-
moved the matter surrounding the trickling eye-ball, dementi assured
us that this awful eye-complaint was the sole reason that had driven
him and his people from the place. Those who had stayed behind only
wanted to remain for such time as the fruits of their labour in the fields
could be harvested.*

511. Night proved as unkind as the whole day : the rain continued
to fall in torrents and by two o'clock in the morning, Clementi who had
slung his hammock close to ours, already started to spin yarns. His lis-
teners did not seem to have completed their sleep, because the exclama-
tions of wonder and surprise ever. became weaker and more infrequent
until they finally died away altogether. This could not however stem
the tide of the chieftain's flow of speech : the ardour of his portrayal was
rather the more increased to such a pitch tha)t he raised himself in his
hammock and carried on his story with the most lively gesticulations. It
finally became unbearable but, on Mr. King angrily cabling out that if
he could not hold his tongue he would have to sling his hammock in one
of the farther houses, we managed to get some momentary rest. The high-
Iv imajrinative story-taller yielded with a grunt, but hardly did he believe
that we had slumbered again than, in a softer and more subdued voice,
he resumed the thread of his narrative : this however carried him away
once more and made him forget our previous notice so completely that in
a few minutes' time his speech was pouring forth with such inspiring
zeal and rousing him to such intense excitement that we were forced to
burst into loud laughter.

512. A longer stay amongst the dirty occupants of these houses seem-
ed to us more burdensome than to continue our journey in the rain. On
the left bank, still in the fore-noon, we passed the Amissi mouth which
was considerably wider than the Barima itself. ,A«s the Indians said, the
'Amissi runs only a short course and is in communication with the Kai
tuma by means of several natural channels (Itabbos) : its basin is gen-
erally swampy and unoccupied, and its current extremely weak.

513. The water had already for a long time past lost its saline taste,
though tidal influences: were still unmistakable, and all attempts at cul-
tivation of the water-shed up to this point would prove fruitless, as was
also indicated by several abandoned Warrau settlements, of which some
had been erected on platforms built immediately above water-level. Dense

3. 325

THE OAK or THE TROPICS. 147

masses of Cecropia peltata showed in the far distance the site of such
a settlement.

514. Since we left Warina, the course of the Barirna had turned
more towards the South-West, and wiiii the increasing alteration in the
height of its banks the hitherto characteristic vegetation had also taken
on a corresponding change. The palms disappeared and only here and
there a thick clump of the spiny Bactris acanthocarpa Mart, the deep-
red ripe fruits of which shone forth in a dazzling play of colour out of
the fresh verdure, covered a spot here and there on the river-sides.
Among the new forms of creepers putting in an appearance several
Aristoloclnac, Passiflorae, and Echites grandiflora Willd. especially at-
tracted my attention. The large dark-red floral tufts resembling the
Oleander, which hung down on thin pedicles from the slender runners,
were the sport of the light morning breeze, while the Echites macro-
phylla and E. lucida Humb., not indeed so rich in flowers, yet glittering
with their beautiful yellow tints, as well as the snow-white peculiarly
constructed blossoms of Calyptrion 'Aubletii Ging., the little scarlet-red
brushes of Conibretum tyaxum Aubl. and the delicately shaded grape-
like flowers of Hirtella racemosa Lam., embellished the handsome river-
side screens with the mosft glorious exchange of colour.

515. After passing shortly before midday the mouths of the Aruta
and Pegna on its left bank, the bed of the Barima gradually narrowed
down to 40 yards, and so increased its current in equal proportion.
Through this narrow channel the stream wound itself in innumerable
bends and hindered our progress to such an extent that we could only
make very slow headway. The banks ever became higher, the vegetation
ever more luxuriant until it reached its climax in the Mora cxcclsa
Benth., the "Oak of the Tropics" one might almost say. I really know
of no representatives in our northern forests even approaching this
tree. Our most colossal oaks would only stand like dwarfs by fhe sid»
of such a giant, the huge trunk of which is shadod with a dome of th°
most beautiful dark-green foliage. The Indians call it the "Chieftain of
the Forest" and it is the most characteristic name that they could have
chosen for it. The stately tree had often deceived us when, on coming
round a river-bend, we thought we were gazing upon'a series of verdant
hills in the distant background, only to find that they changed at close
quarters into isolated groups of mora trees with a height of from 150
to 160 feet. Bush -ropes, of the same girth as a man, wind their immense
arms around these huge trunks and boughs up to the very top, where
their floral chaplet decorates, as it were, the head of the conqueror of
the virgin forest: they then fall once, more from these dizzy heights onto
their humbler brethren the branches of which they likewise enfold, and
thus they chain tree -to tree and hold in their embrace those giants, the
hitherto safe foundations of which the raging current has perhaps under-
mined, and so secure them against sudden overthrow. On several occas-
ions the high river-banks, undermined by the rush of waters, presented
this riotous scenery of a landscape where these giants of the primitive for-
est, only held back by the bush-ropes clinging round them and the more
distant trees, thus bent over the surface of fche river into which it was
every minute to be feared they were about to 'take their annihilating

148 THE ROSE OF THE TROPICS.

plunge. When the combined chains of bush-rope together with their
shackled trees are too weak to bear the weight of a Mora, the sinking
monster often drags down with it to destruction a whole series of its
supports but just as frequently, if its roots are not quite separated from
the soil, new trunks will soon rise from out of its grave and overtop the
brushwood of the environs.

516. This concatenation of the bush-ropes affords the trees real pro-
tection : one can throw down the larger only after the fall of the smaller
ones. I found this out for myself during subsequent travels when, in
order to fell one tree that was flowering I had first of all to cut away
five or six others which the coil of vine-rope (bush -rope of the Colonists)'
had linked together.

517. The importance of the Mora for the British Navy to which my
brother already drew attention after his first journey, has recently been
completely confirmed. One finds this valuable tree in such quantity
and huge size on the upper Barima that its banks would supply suffi-
cient material for the whole of England's Fleet.

518. With the appearance of this giant the river-side growth had
assumed quite a new character. I was surrounded with trees, flowers
and fruits that I had nowhere as yet come across. Amongst those ap-
pearing for the first time there especially gleamed the beautiful crimson
blossoms of the Brownca racemosa Jacq. which at a distance I mistook
for the ripe fruits of Bactris acanthocarpa. By ^the side of this refresh-
ingly vivid wealth of nature all the illustrations fthat the artist has
made of these flowers are dead and impressionless — and how could even
the most skilful brush attain the exactness that Nature has imprinted
on this enamel-work of dazzling colours? The delicate structure of this
elegant tree, the brilliancy of its vigorous foliage, the wealth of its large
indescribably frail blossoms that glow in such blinding colours that the
eye can hardly bear their sparkling fire — everything combined to cap-
tivate my admiration, Although the Brownea belongs to quite a differ
ent family, and its inflorescence differs entirely from the rose, I can
find no more suitable term for it than the "Rose of the Tropics." And
when the blossoms disappeared the large but delicate seed-pods present-
ed a pretty picture which even beside the magnificent Gustavia fastuosa
Willd. and innumerable dazzling-white wax-like flowers of the Clusia
retained an overpowering charm.

519. Nature, with a real covetousness of space, had fashioned the
branches that were encroaching outwards far above the surface of the
stream into hanging gardens, where grew innumerable Orchids, Tilland-
sias., Ferns, and Aroids from which giddy heights the last-
mentioned dangled in the air their thread-like roots, often 100
feet long. The glorious Vanilla that I had already found scat-
tered on the lower reaches of the river, proved very plentiful
here and particularly during the morning and evening hours
filled the atmosphere with the delicious aroma of its blossoms.
Spreading out on either side its large symmetrical succulent leaves this
creeper climbs the trees in a perfectly straight line, twines itself from
branch t . branch, and then turns down again to ground where it strikes

STRANGE FAMILY PICTURE.

its roots anew. In ,'spite of the monkeys having already obtained the
chief portion of the harvest, the vanilla pod being their favourite tit-
bit, Mr. King managed to collect a considerable quantity. The pods
have yet to undergo quite a peculiar form of treatment before acquiring
their glorious perfume.

520. After following the crooked course of the Barinia for some
time in between this fairy-like growth of giant trees, the proud summits
of which reach a height unknown in European forests, dementi drew
our attention to a piece of land on which the Cecropiw peltata was grow-
ing in profusion, with the remark, "the last dwelling of the white man."
From what he told us we concluded that at the beginning of this cen-
tury a settler, a Dutchman it appeared, had pushed his way as far as
the mouth of the little stream Huena, where he had started a sugar
plantation and combined a timber business with it : the solitude of the
virgin forest, that rendered all business relations difficult, and a
smaller profit than he had expected, seemed to have induced him to
abandon it shortly afterwards.

521 . The configuration of the ground that had been so uniform and
level hitherto, now began to show an occasional rise that was abundant-
ly covered with forest trees until, close to the mouth of the Caruwava
or Caruawa, on the right bank, some huts on one of these hills induced
us to enter the stream, and pay the settlement a visit. It required but
a glance to survey the miserable houses and the equally scanty household
requisites. The first living being that we met was a young Wamiu
woman nursing her baby at one breast, and a young marsupial (Didcl-
phis) at the other. A strange family picture for the eye of a -European!

522. A numerous gathering of men thickly painted with Rucu and
embellished with the most variegated feather ornaments indicated the
celebration of a feast. We drew near the drinking hall and soon recog-
nised further signs of the carouse in the huge trough filled with pai-
wari, and the continual passing of the calabashes. Several young girls,
who played the part of Ganymedes, attracted our attention not only on.
account of their neat clean print costume, but also their regular build
of body and features: the women of the Warraus whom we had hitherto
seen had never offered us an equally pleasant sight.

523. When the chief noticed us, he and the other male participants
jumped out of their hammocks. The former reached under the frame-
work of the roof and brought out from there his dtaff of office which
had been carefully rolled up in palm-leaves and, with it in his hand,
formally bade us welcome, dementi, probably never even dreaming of .
such a gathering, had stayed behind in the corial with the remaining
Indians but, our long stay arousing his attention, followed us after a
while. Hardly had he noticed us in the centre of the festive circle than
he quickly hurried back to the corial and made his toilette : dressed up
with a white shirt, the light blue hait in its white paper cover on his
head, and the staff of sovereignty in his hand, he stepped into our circle
and stiffly greeted the neighbourly chief who, returning the salutation
with equal dignity, bade him welcome to his district.

524. As I have already frequently mentioned, the Indians are pas-
sionately fond of play and amusement: hitherto we had only become

150 WRESTLING MATCHES.

acquainted with their endless stories !and unruly dances, but now we
were to be witness of a new kind of sport. We had often previously
heard a good deal about their wrestling-matches but iiad never had an
opportunity of waitching one at close quarters. Y/hen therefore we
learned that a game of this nature was going to be played, we waited for
it with strained curiosity, but were almost doomed to disappointment
owing to the Warraus not being accustomed to perform it before night-
fall when all the invited guests are assembled. Spirits were therefore
iiecessary to make them alter their usual practice, it being impossible
for us to stay on until late because we wanted to reach this very same
day a Waika settlement on the Manari. What we could not get done
by asking, what would have been refused us for the most valuable pres-
ents, was obtained with a few glasses of rum, the charm of which the
Indians could not resist, although the Paiwari was yet present in quan-
tity more than enough.

525. The play-ground consisted of an (extensive circle, situate in
the forest on the farther side of the village and had been carefully clear-
ed of all bush and grass. The gathering divided into four parties who
with challenging gestures betook themselves to the place of combat
where two divisions were opposed against two. On a given signal, the
individual lighting commenced with the Ha-ha, a sort of shield, with
which the combatants m'utually tried to force one another from off a
fixed spot within the circle that was held by the victor until he had
to yield to the greater dexterity or strength of a fresh fighter from the
opposite side. The two individuals of the opposed main divisions who
kept their ground within the wrestling place to the last were led amidst
shouts of rejoicing and triumph as conquerors to the paiwari trough
where the girls met them with calabashes already filled. Simple as the
game was, it could not be denied that it must contribute a good deal to
the improvement of the adroitness of the limbs and strengthening of the
muscular powers, and we Europeans followed with the closest attention

liveliest interest the snake-like turnings and the extraordinary
rapidity with which the combatants utilised every favourable situation,
every advantage that offered, to attain their object.

526. Amongst the older women who were present at the sports, I
noticed several witli quite a peculiar apron-belt (Masikara) the material
of which that I first regarded as leather, subsequently proved to be a
flexible tree-bark. The apron, about a hand's stretch wide, was bent
along its upper border over a string that was tied round the body above
the hips : towards the other end its breadth was reduced more and more
until the whole thing ran out into a thumb-thick extremity which was
drawn up between the thighs and fixed again to the string at the back.

527. The festival appeared to be of importance, for there was not
only a superabundance of paiwari, but also a considerable supply of a
rarer drink, the Ite, manufactured by the Indians from, the juice of the
Mauritia, flexuosa and which is so sweet that it certainly contained 50
to 60 per cent, of sugar material. Unfortunately a large number oi
the most beautiful palms have to be sacrificed in its preparation since,
the tree has to be felled and the sap driven out by fire placed beneath.
The fully supplied troughs and vessels seemed to possess, the same attrac-

LITTLE GOBLINS. 151

tive power over our boathands that the flesh-pots of Egypt exercised over,
the Israelites, for it was only through the most stringent orders of Cab-
eralli and dementi that they could be made to leave and take the places
assigned them in the boats where, with bad but restrained tempers, they
took to their paddles. They brought the corials up the Curawava as far
as the mouth of the Manari, a tributary of the latter with a consider-
able current, which we then intended following as far as the Waika set-
tlement, whence we were to start on our overland journey. About 200
Warraus inhabit the basin of the Caruwava : that of the Mauari in its
lower course is also occupied solely by this tribe.

528. The banks of both rivers again became completely flat, and with
them there also disappeared the luxuriant growth of vegetation and
pretty landscapes. The trees on the river-sides were overgrown with
moss and Jungermannia, and only the numerous rank-growing orchids
like Stanhopea grandiflora Lindl., Rodriguesia, secunda Hurnb. and R.
stricta Steud., Gongora maculata Lindl., G. nigrita, Lindl., and a number
of Maxillaria, Epidendrum etc. enlivened the monotonously desolate as-
pect of our surroundings.

529. An extensive water-flat soon indicated that the low banks had
been no longer able to control the volume of water. As Caberalli wanted
to visit in the neighbourhood the settlement of a Warrau AVhom he had
made friends with, I accompanied him in his corial through the heart of
the forest up to the first house. I had already learnt to know several
degrees of dirt and neglect amongst the Warraus, and yet it must be ad-
mitted that I had never found the wretched condition of these Indiana
so oppressive and pitiable as I did here. Everything — residents, houses,
domestic implements, why, even the surroundings themselves — demon-
strated only too strikingly that here around us were gathered people who
knew nothing or required anything higher than the gratification of their
lowest wants. The whole settlement was entirely surrounded by water,
and the miserable 7 to 8 feet long houses rose from a platform which,
with previously -split trunks of Euterpe oleracea placed one on top of the
other, had been built on 5 to 6 feet high posts or cut-off tree trunks. A heap
of earth in the middle of each house was the substitute for a hearth, and
prevented the continually burning fire from finding its way through the
lath floor. The low roof was covered with palm-leaves while a tree-trunk,
supplied with notches, leaning obliquely against the house, served as a
ladder to which at high water the corial was tied. Even at low tide the
place was so swampy that a narrow dam made of logs placed on end
(Knuppeldamm) had to be laid from the settlement to the higher- lying
ground. If now upon this limited space one can imagine a fair number
of children tumbling about like goblins in the ashes and heaped-up dirt,
and likewise men as well as women stiffened with similar filth, even Cab-
eralli's shake of the head and contemptuous smik will become intelligible.
Great heaps of emptied shells of a large snail (Ampullaria urceus Fers.)
which I saw here for the first time led us to believe that the animal must
be a favourite with the residents. Being skilled fishermen they generally
have sufficient food, and if the cassava root does not suffice for their re-
quirements for bread, they mix its flour with the mealy substance of
Greenheart seeds (Nectandra Rodiei Schomb.) and the pith of Mauritfy
stems.

152 TWo LILIES OF THE VALLEY.

530. We left after a short stay and soon caught up with the boats that
had hurried oil ahead: it was about evening when dead tired we reached
the Waika or Akawai settlement Manari, which was also situate on a
rise on the bank. It consisted of six large houses, the exact counter-part
of those miserable shanties we had seen in the afternoon, for not only
on account of the delightful method of their construction, but also tlL2
neatness and noticeable tidiness natural to them, they compared most
favourably with the whole of the Warrau buildings, dementi's residence
excepted. Though the impression made upon us by their homes was one
of the pleasantest, the pleasure was still further increased by the gen-
eral appearance of the occupants. The cleanliness of their persons, their
children., and the nattiness of all their domestic arrangements exercised
a most salutary effect upon us, after more than a month's stay among the
dirty Warraus, and yet we had caught the women busily engaged in the
clean business of baking and chewing bread, infallible signs that we
Avere shortly to be witnesses of a Paiwari. All the men, except the chief-
tain, had gone to hunt the game required for the feast. The latter, al-
ready aged, received us extremely cordially and at once arranged to ac-
commodate us in the largest and nicest of the houses.

531. These people are infinitivety more closely allied to us than those
creatures whom I visited with Oaberalli in the afternoon. Except for
the apron-belt which had a much greater breadth and length than
that of the Warraus, reaching pretty well down to the knees, and was
plaited out of blue and white beads without however containing any
winding patterns (gcwiuidenoi Figureu), the well set-up female figures
went about naked. And yet there was spread among them, especially
the younger ones, as was to be noticed so often subsequently, a naive
modesty which, as regards pure womanliness, undoubtedly stands on
an infinitively higher level than the unnatural prudery of an exagger-
ated and veneered civilisation. We came across girls here with real-
ly perfect figures, amongst whom the two Lilies of the Valley, twin
daughters of the chief, undeniably carried off the prize for beauty. Had
the complexion of these truly plastic beauties! been less brown, and their
.number three*, we could have been pardoned for mistaking them for the

Graces, who, wandering over the Earth, had lost their way, and with
tender diffidence, were now coming towards us from out of the chief-
tain's natty house. Yet even with this brown complexion, and the num-
ber two, we were none the less surprised, for it was impossible, for any,
of us Europeans to have hitherto seen a more perfect symmetry of limb,
and such a clear-cut Greek profile which received still further charm
from the long black tresses that fell over the beautiful brown shoulders
like a natural veil. On my departure from the home-land I had receiv-
ed several little ornaments from a friend for the preittiest Indian girl
I was to meet : the Lilies of the Valley are probably still wearing the;
string-beads and bracelets.

532, It was only the occupation at which they were just then en-
gaged, that did not support our flight of fancy — the cheeks filled with
cassava-bread, the chewing of the contents while going about their other
business and their haste from time to time to the huge trough to rid
themselves of the masticated brew and there take up a new supply, were

fe of PLANS. 153

but too much suited to upset our little dreams, and made us watch these
glorious figures in the mirror of reality.

533. Notwithstanding that my brother and Mr. King had fairly pre-
pared my stomach already by describing the manufacture of this drink,
and although I had tasted it frequently, even if reluctantly, a cold shiv-
er ran down my back when I now saw it actually being prepared, and
overwhelmed by the experience, had to put to my lips the awful mixture
that was immediately to be handed us by the Lilies of the Valley, for
even if they alone had prepared all the ingredients it would still have-
made me shudder to my very vitals. The Guiana Indian however knows
no pipe of peace, but a drink of peace, to refuse which means wantonly
to change the proffered sentiments of faithful friendship into ones of
the most bitter hatred.

534:. >Ve Had hardly taken possession of our quarters than we be-
gan to open our boxes and unpack their contents, to satisfy ourselves as
to how far they might have been affected by tne rain mat Had fallen
continuously ever since Curnaka up to now, and to save troni complete
ruin by heat what there still was to save. Only those who have under-
gone similar experiences can appreciate all the pain and discourage-
ment that a person must suffer when on opening his cases in the firm
conviction. that no damp could get inside and that his foresight and care
must receive their rich reward in the proper preservation of the treas-
ures gathered — he now finds nothing but mildew and mould! Alas, I
had to drink my cup of bitterness to its very dregs, particularly with my
botanical and entomological collections, and it was long before I could
recover from the shock consequent on what I found. Even our "trade"'
had succumbed to the harmful atmospheric influences, and that we our-
selves were also subject to them was shown by the following morning
when more than half our boatliands, down with fever, remained in their
hammocks. The original plan for the trip had to be altered. The pit-
iable condition of Mr. Hancock's as well as my own feet, put any lengthy
strenuous overland journey which it had been proposed to start here,
quite out of the question. At the same time, those of the crews who
were afflicted with fever had become an equally embarrassing company
whom my brother dared not (engage for a trip where the expedition, there
was every probability to believe, would be opposed to difficulties and
hardships quite foreign to those it had hitherto experienced. The result
was the sifting of the sick from the strong, hard though it was to agree.
Mr. King, Hancock, and myself as well as the sick crew were to return
in the one corial to the mouth of the Essequibo, journey up it to
Bartika Grove, and wait for my brother who, after visiting the Cuyuni,
would come down the river and join us there.

535. Next day a general shouting notified that the men who had
been sent hunting had returned from the forest, and it was in real aston-
ishment that I stared at their powerful symmetrical figures laden with
plenty of spoil and accompanied by the loveliest of dogs.

536. Of all the coastal people the Waikas or Akawais constitute
without doubt the most powerful stamp of men and surpass the remain-
ing tribes not only in the vigour of their whole build of body but also
in their nobility and regularity of features. They are in the majority
of cases slim, generally over 5ft. Gins, tall, and their limbs firm and

SMOKBD MONKEYS NO DELICACY.

compact: with it they develop in all their movements an elasticity, jl
suppleness, and an agility of body that up till now had not been appar-
ent amongst the Indians. The size and proportion, the whole construc-
tion of the limbs, the longer neck, the less protruding abdomen, and the
regular facial features, mostly wanting in the South American Indian,
are here united in such a high state of perfection that almost every one
might serve as a model of absolute male beauty, particularly if the
whole deficiency of the growth of beard were to be remedied.

537. They were just as much surprised at seeing us strangers as
we were astonished at their physique: they received us as friends and
gave immediate practical proof of the correspondence between the outer
signs and inner truth by setting before us as a present a portion of the
booty which they had already heaped in front of the chief. As the
hunters had been away for several days, the greater portion of the game
had had to be smoked, a procedure that gave a particularly horrible ap-
pearance to the dead monkeys because they had not been skinned, but
only singed : it was long before I could dispel from my mind the idea
that these were negro children that had died in convulsions. The re-
maining quarry consisted of hog, which had mostly been cut up in quar-
ters, deer '(Capreohis simplicicornis and C. rufus), agutis ( Dasyproct ») ,
ant-bears and a number of fowl, especially ducks.

538. Of the game that was offered us we prudently picked out only
the fowl, and our share of the slaughtered hog and deer: our stomach
still stood far too much under the sway of the imagination to allow of
its wanting to make friends with the ghastly shapes of the huge
crumpled-up howler-monkeys, although its revolt had to be completely
quelled on subsequent journeys.

539. The lovely hunting-dogs had attracted my undivided attention
at first sight. While those of the Warraus belong to a small gaunt
breed with pointed snout, upright-standing ears and short hair, those
of the Waikas on the contrary are distinguished by strong build and
beautiful hair, and to all appearance resemble our water-dogs (Was-
scrhunden) : we surmised that they were of Spanish descent, a view that
was confirmed by the fact that the Waikas often undertake long jour-
neys to barter breeding-dogs from the tribes of Colombia and Brazil.
It is a peculiar phenomenon that beneath this hot sky, hydrophobia is
quite an unknown disease and is hardly ever to be -seen : the terrible com-
plaint does not occur in Georgetown.

540. The environs of Manari offered evidence of extreme fertility:
this was especially noticeable in -the sugar-cane and maize growing in
the provision-fields surrounding the settlement, with which the products
of the coast were out of all comparison, because the miaize grew cobs
to a length of from 10 to 13 inches and many a plantain bunch weighed
100 Ibs. The soil consisted generally of a rich loam strongly mixed
with humus and sand, that rested upon a thick layer of clay, so that
even in the dry season of the year, the vegetation remained, assured of
sufficient moisture.

541. However much I was delighted with my trips in such sur-
roundings, the miserable condition of my feet forced me to restrict them
to the narrowest limits, and even then I continuaHy returned home with

OF INTERRUPTED TAIL LEATHERS. 156

a heavy bundle, to wliicli the family Melastowaveae, so numerously met
with here, contributed a good deal.f

542. Amongst the fauna in the provision fields, I was particularly
struck with small groups of birds which in the whole of their appear-
ance bore considerable resemblance to our magpies, except that they
were much smaller. The Indians called them Ibiburu. At first I
took them for Betyllus leverianm, but discovered on closer observation
that they differed from leverianiis not only in size but also in the design
of their plumage : perhaps they are a new species. /They are extremely
shy : on which account they are especially rare along the coast.
The Pionites momota, the Hutu-hutu, which shuns the open pro-
vision fields as much as the edge of the forests, sounded its
melancholy but sharply articulate note already before sunrise from
out of the dark shadows of its favourite resting-place, where
it is anything but shy : it usually perches on the lowest branches
of the trees, and as it sounds its "Hutu-hutu" slowly moves its long tail
up and down.

543. \ must correct the [observation already repeatedly made that the
Pionites after it becomes full-grown, bites off the barbs from both sides
of the quills of the longest tail-feathers an inch from the extremity, the
deficiency being due to another cause. The bird, as is known, is very fond
of choosing for its nest a small depression on the side of a hill or some
other rising ground. During the brooding season, when male and female
regularly relieve one another, they veer round on the eggs very frequently
whereby the pinnules of both the long tail-feathers projecting beyond
the edges of the nest become considerably frayed and crumpled. The
Hutu-hutu carefully attending to the pruning of its feathers tries now,
on leaving the nest after hatching, to trim its plumage again, and as it
does this several times a day, the feathers that the edges of the nest
spared, become sacrificed to its love of order. The surest indication of
a young bird that has not yet sat on its eggs is the still undamaged plumes
of both the long tail-feathers. The Crcx melampyga and Tetrao yuian-
ensis fell just as frequently as the Pionites to the arrows of the Indians,
who can imitate the bird's call of "Durra-quarra" to perfection and so
decoy it within certain reach of their weapons. Directly it greets the
break of dawn, the Indian imitates it in reply, picks up bow and arrow
or gun in the meantime, hurries off, and within a few minutes returns

t — The prominent species were : Miconia, (Melastoma Auhl.) alata DeC., M. racemosa DeC.. M
lutigifolia DeC., M. purpurascens DeC., M. laevigata DeC., M. aftenuafa DeC., M, elata DeC..
Segraea sessiliflora DeC., Henriettea succosa DeC., Clidemia agrestis Don. .Distributed among
the low bush there grew particularly : M"roctia longiftora Sw., Mabea Pirini Aubl., Ma/eta
guianensis, Hirtella racemosa Lam., T-doernaemontana odorata Valil., Cephaelis involucrata Willd..
Eugenia, and several species of Cordia. Among the legumes I would mention : Lisyanthus
graitdiflorus Aubl., Convolvolus guianensis Aubl., Monnieria trifolia Linn., Coutubea spicata
Aubl., C. minor Humb., various Spermacoce, Phytolacca, PtffehoMa, Xiphidium, and Solatium,
while Ricinux communis of really giant size covered the fields of the provision grounds, but I
have not been able to learn whether the Indians are aware of the properties of its oil : in
Georgetown it is known, and the negroes accordingly cultivate the bush in plenty. The virgin
forest surrounding the provision fields consisted for the most part of Sopourea guianensis
Aubl., of the beautiful blooming Guettarda, Isertia coccinea Vahl., Cubaea puniculata Willd.,
Vochytia guianensis Aubl., Macrolobium sphaerocarpum Willd., Myristica sebifera Swi, Siphonia
elastica Pers. ,and Triplaris american* Linii., — all of them trees which had uot yet appeared
iu the lower reaches of the stream.

156 MANUFACTURE OF NATIVE DRINKS.

with the bleeding bird. I have almost always found the bird solitary,
rarely in pairs.

544. On the hunters' return from their successful trip the bustle and
activities of the settlement increased. Already before sunrise the older
women, laden with heavy baskets full of cassava roots and sweet j?ota-
toes, were back from the provision fields, while the men brought! in huge
loads of sugar-cane, the juice of which was to be added to the Paiwari.
The whole of .the fair sex, old and young, were grouped around the bask-
ets, to peel the roots, to grate, squeeze, and work them up into bread, and
to boil the potatoes in huge pots. Not a word was said, for their mouths
were chock-full of cassava, all communication and intelligence being con-
veyed in pantomime. Had not the sad prospect of being inevitably forced
to imbibe the disgusting drink scared all gaiety out of me, I would have
burst into loud laughter on stepping within the circle of this busy con-
gregation.

545. A second drink that I saw manufactured here out of maize,
potatoes, and sugar-cane juice was called Casiri by the Indians. The
maize is ground in a mortar-shaped vessel and then boiled to a pap : the
same thing is done with the sweet potatoes. This completed, a quantity
of cane juice is added to the latter, and then mixed with; the maize-brew
after it has become thoroughly cooled. So far the most sentimental
stomach of a European has no cause for objection to its preparation,
were it not that finally a vessel with chewed maize grains which are
already fully fermented is emptied in to accelerate the fermentation of the
whole: a certain quantity of water then thing the mass and makes it
more fluid. The taste of the drink is, for the rest, sweet-sourish and in
no sense unpleasant.

546. After the huge trough, which certainly held from 4 to 500
quarts, as well as the larger vessels had been filled with paiwari and
casiri, and covered with plantain-leaves, the residents thought about
their persons and the preparation of their holiday attire. The women
brought out their little cups and pots with oil made from the Cara-pa
guianemis, with which, after the morning bath, they salve both their
bodies as well as their very beautiful hair, the rich fullneiss of the latter
being ascribed especially to its growth-giving qualities. When the
buckeens want to manufacture this wonderful hair-restorer, they collect
the chestnut-like fruits and heap them up in a damp spot until they be-
gin to go bad, when they clean them of their outer seed-coverings and
crush the kernels to a pap which they knead several times with warm
water and then expose to the sun in a large trough-like bark receptacle,
where the oily portions of the fruit soon collect on the surface. Macassar
oil as well as Dupuytrin's hair-strengthening Lion Pomade for a long
time past have had to make room for this oil on the toilet-tables of the
beautiful Creole women.

547. The boxes made of palm-leaves containing Kucu and Cariacru
were also prepared in readiness for the morning when the face and body
were painted in motley colours. The former is made from the fruits of
Bixa Orellana the seeds of which are surrounded with a slimy vermilion-
coloured envelope. These are washed and stirred around in a vessel con-
taining water until their slimy coverings become quite loosened and can

PRELIMINARIES TO A FEAST. 167

be removed, whereupon one exposes the remainder to evaporation in the
sun : when the watery contents are quite evaporated, the whole is mixed
with crab-oil and the sweet-scented resin of the Hymenaca Courbaril Linn.
The finer Cariacru with which however the Waikas only paint their
faces, is obtained in barter from the tribes of the interior who manufac-
ture it from the leaves of the Bignonia chica Humb. The fruit of the
Gcnipa americana supplies them with a bluish black colour which lasts
a fairly long while.

548. Before I pass on to a description of the festival itself I must
mention the way and manner in which the host makes his guests under-
stand on which day they are expected to dine with him, or when some/
body with whom he has business to transact must put in an appearance,
because the Indian has no special terms for individual days.

549. When the chief wants to give a feast, he picks as many strings
as the number of his friends living at a distance whom he proposes in-
viting, and threads as many beads or ties as many knots upon each of
them as there are days remaining in the interval before the appointed
date. Swift messengers now hurry off with these strings in all direc-
tions to everybody whose attendance is requested, and hand him one at
the same time that they give him the verbal message. The person invited
then ties it on to his hammock, and every morning takes off a bead or
unties a knot, and on the day when the knots are all loosened, or the
beads have all disappeared, the guests put in their appearance for sure .
But in order that he himself may make no mistake, the host has also re-
tained a string and obseryes.the same procedure followed by his friends,
daily removing a bead or undoing a knot. They employ 'the same method
in all their private matters and business affairs that they wish to carry
on with tribal associates living at a distance. Amongst the tribes of the
interior, particularly among the Macusis, instead of the strings with
beads or knots, use is made of a stick into which are cu't notches corres-
ponding with the number of intervening days: one of these notches is
shaved off every day, and so the feast cannot prove abortive.

550. What a sprightly picture presented itself at dawn to-day ! The
first glance I cast into the open houses showed that more than half the
residents were busy with their toilette. Mothers painted their children,
an operation under which the impatient little boys particularly delighted
me, because one could see in each one's countenance that it occupied far
too much of the time that might be spent in company with those of their
own age already tumbling about along the front. Bounding with im-
patience and quivering in all their limbs, the brief and sharp expostula-
tion and reproof of the mothers could only momentarily keep them quiet.
The time of torment at last drew to a conclusion and, reviewed under the
discriminating gaze of their proud maternal relatives, one after another
of the youngsters hurried off to his companions, till the voice of some
criticising mother would call this or that one back again and lengthen
some of the painted streaks or cover up others. One pretty little girl
however had a far more impatient partner for the feast to quieten : this
was her tame monkey which knew far too much than allow the daubs
painted by the mother on her brother's1 face to be .copied by the sister
on its own, and accordingly tried to prevent it by mischievously biting
and violently struggling with her. What wonder then that the abrupt

158 BEDECKING FOR THE FESTIVAL.

and noisy utterances with which the mother had reproved the son, were
repeated ten times oftener by the daughter who finally brought her dif-
ficult task to an end by girding the restless creature with some beaded
strings and a small apron-belt. The older girls, standing in front of a
looking-glass that had been obtained in barter,, were smoothing and salv-
ing their luxuriant black hair, while the men, sitting up in their ham-
mocks, and also engaged in tidying theirs, let their wives, who were
kneeling in front of them, paint their feet up to the ankles with a bright
red colour, so that one could be easily deceived and led to believe that
they were wearing red laced boots. Other groups of girls were busily
engaged in threading the beads they had received from us to decorate
themselves with : some of the dear old grannies, on the other hand, were
tripping it from one pot to another, and hurrying to the paiwari trough
to taste the brew and cover it more tightly with palnvleaves, while others
again were adding to the supply of cassava bread or else cleaning1 and
putting on the fire the meat intended for the guests.

551. The chief, in full regalia, was up and about by earliest sunrise.
In a coloured shirt, white trousers, and head covered with a European
cap he sat upon a small stool in front of the house and carried on a con-
versation with Clement! who, sitting at his side, was wearing his dress-
coat, the stuck-up collar of which half covered his ears and almost reach-
ed up to the blue hat still wrapped in paper, dementi's wives had also
got out their calico clothes today.

552. My eyes quickly sought the lovely twin-sisters to admire them
in their ball-dress, but they were still engaged in stringing our beads, and
altering their bracelets : their abundant dark hair, all smoothed and
salved, covered their beautifully formed shoulders. Towards afternoon
the whole toilette was completed.

553. The rivers being the usual means of communication in the wil-
derness, all the guests came by corial and notified their arrival at the
landing place with a loud shout of delight whereupon, under the leader-
ship of their chief, they drew near the settlement in regulated order. The
signal of arrival given by the first party had attracted my attention, and
full of expectation I was looking forward to its appearance. An elderly
but still handsome manly figure, clothed in a coloured shirt, his head
covered with an old felt hat, and with the staff of sovereignty in his hand,
suddenly drew near from the direction of the landing : he was immediate-
ly followed by a large number of most handsome male figures. I had
already noticed much picturesque finery amongst the Warraus but I had
never gazed on a picture similar to what now presented itself. Imagine
a handsome vigorous male, with the head encircled in a fantastic feather
cap : the face streaked with a number of fine white and red rectangular
parallel lines and then the forehead, from around which and where it was
stuok, there hung the white feather-fluff of the Crax alector: the whole
body covered with black and red coloured right-angled patterns as far
as the ankles, immediately below which the feet were painted red: the
powerful neck and equally muscular chest decorated with chains of
monkeys' and hogs' teeth from which tassels, made of pepper-eater skins
mixed with those of the beautiful honey-bird (Neotarinea coentlea) or

THE ABRIVAL or GUESTS. 159

with wing-cases of brilliant diamond-beetles (Buprestidae) , hung
down the back : the ankles encircled by strings threaded with the hol-
lowed-out seeds of the Thevetia nereijolia Juss. that cause a tinkling
noise with every step — and you have a description of every Indian ac-
companying the chief. Only a few amongst them were specially notice-
able through wearing a feather mantle made of the closely -threaded
long tail-feathers of the Indian raven (Powis) which, like a halo radiat
ing downwards, enclosed the shoulders. Leading their children by the
hand, dressed in simple bead- ornaments and thickly painted, the women
closed the interesting procession.

554. Although our large corial had certainly roused the arriving
guests to a high pitch of curiosity, and the sight of so many strangers
filling the village must have increased their astonishment still further,
the column proceeded earnestly and silently on its way without taking
the slightest notice of us. Only the children threw shy and stolen
glances in our direction, it being probably the first time in their lives
that they had seen white and black people, and, frightened at our appear-
ance, anxiously nestled close up to their mothers. When the procession
arrived at the chiefs house, the tAvo commanders greeted one another : the
visitor sat on a stool already placed there, his dependents standing
around in a half-circle.

555. The salutation ceremony of the Akawais is fairly brief. Guest :
"I am come." Host : "It is well, art thou come?" Guest : "Yes, I am
there." From what Caberalli told me, the salutation and welcome
ceremony of the Arawaks exactly corresponds with this, e.g. Guest: "F
am come." Host : "It is well : art thou come?" or also only "It is
well." Host: "Are you there?" Guest: "Yes, I am there."t" As the
guest uttered the last word, the wife of our chief handed him the drink-
ing vessel filled with paiwari, while another placed a pot of meat before
Mm. After drinking he handed the calabash to the nexit man on his
right, and seized onto the meat, whereupon the host excused himself for
not having anything better to set before him, an apology which was ac-
cepted with an "It is good." All his remaining male companions were
then supplied with paiwari and meat, while the women, who never dare
eat at the same time with the men, inquisitively turned their bashful
looks upon us : as soon as they had eaten and drunk, they approached
this or that resident, spoke with him, or stepped up to us, and only now
was it permissible for the women to still their thirst and satisfy their
hunger.

556. Troop thus followed upon troop, the reception ceremony being
repeated with each one. Amongst the whole of this vast assemblage
there were not two individuals where absolute correspondence could be
found in the painting of the face.

557. Every guest had brought with him his cotton-woven hammock
which, directly after the salutation scene, was fetched out of the cor-
ials by the women, slung up in one of the houses, and taken possession
of by the owner. Resting in it, he would talk with his comrades lying
close by, or make some funny satirical remarks about us, our people, or

t Compare Quandt : Nathricht von Surinam und seinen Btiwhnern.

160 TAKING THE CEREMONIAL DRINK.

our belongings that raised a hearty laugh among the others : the drink-
ing cups that were continually going the round, naturally enlivened the
conversation more and more.

558. That the Master of the Ceremonies was to have a gala day ot
it, was indicated by His wealth of decoration. {Shortly before sundowu
he seized tne nuge barnbu round which long strings threaded with
Thevetia seeds had been wound, and with it gave the signal to begin the
dance, whereupon every jack man jumped out of his hammock and they
all arranged themselves in a half circle around and at a little distance
away from the huge paiwari- trough. This, together with the house
was lighted up by several torches manufactured from thick cotton,
strands repeatedly dipped in melted wax and rolled. The M.C. now
sauntered with a stoop round and round the trough, at the conclusion
of each circuit taking two steps towards it, and then again one step
back — a movement that was imitated by the whole column, each man
having the left hand resting on the right shoulder of his neighbour, and
except that, instead of a stoop, their position was upright. This slow
and measured circling and posing was regulated by the beat of a monot-
onous song: I could unfortunately obtain no explanation of the mean-
ing of the words that formed its foundation, because the present-day,
Waikas no longer understand them themselves. The words of the sonsj
are handed down from father to son but the language seenls to have
changed in the course of time, because the Present has indeed preserved
the form, the phrasing of the expressions and the words, but not their
meaning. The M.C. every time sang a few words beforehand which
the chorus repeated, and this was effected with such precision and ac-
curacy that one thought one heard but a single voice. Among the women,
only the chiefs wife and an old granny, who was apparently the oldest
member of Itie whole company, took part in the song.

559. After the procession had sauntered round the trough several
times, the M.C. stopped short, the dancers drew fresh breath and let out
a frightful yell. The women and girls hurried now with the empty
calabashes to the trough, filled them full, handed them to the men and
satisfied every one whose eye (beckoned for refreshment, when the column
again set itself in motion, but to the accompaniment of a fresh equally
unintelligible song in another beat. During the pauses those who were
tired dropped out of the ranks, fresh dancers stepping into their places.,
Indeed, the more the dancers drank, the oftener were the pauses repeat-
ed, the more irregular the movements, and the noisier the song, which
finally degenerated into a wrild roar. Owing to my little gifts I Tiad un-
fortunately completely won the favours of both the beautiful twin-sis-
ters who now wanted to show their appreciation by frequently toasting
me with the drinking cup. As the refusal of a drink is considered a
wilful sign of contempt and would have engendered indelible mistrust
and bitter hatred in the hearts of both beautiful girls as] well as their*
father, I found myself 'forced to make at least an appearance of swallow-
ing the stuff. But what are our notorious drinking-bouts as compared
with such a feast of these savages! I saw men emptying at one draught
calabashes that certainly contained two to three quarts/ hurry oft to a

E]
O
»

E;
02
P
o
B

IN PAIWAKI VEKITAS. 161

tree where they will squeeze in their stomachs so as to vomit the
contents, and directly afterwards accept from the hand of the woman
waiting for them the newly-filled calabash, the contents of which
they will again guzzle at one pull. In the drinking of Paiwari, the Indian
is never satisfied, and here also the dance and song, if one can still apply
that name to a dissolute row, continued until the intoxicating liquor was
drained to the last drop.

560. Except for its change to "In Paiwari Veritas'' the old saw
"In Vino Veritas'' retains its full worth even in the virgin forests of
Guiana. With every cup of drink the inner and truer disposition of the
drinker becomes exposed more distinctly and clearly. Grudges and
hatreds that have been restrained for years, affronts which the offender
would seem long to have forgotten, are now again openly referred to and
expressed in reproaches such as "You are the son of the man who slew
my father/' or "seduced my woman," "It was you that poisoned my wife/'
"You murdered my son/' etc., reminders which every Indian in
circumstances of sobriety will check with cunning caution. These
reproaches would without doubt immediately lead to the most blood-
thirsty revenge were it not that upon the very first sign of drunkenness
all weapons are removed to a distance by the sensible women who
have been tutored by experience, and by certain of the men whose
business it is to keep their heads clear and cool. Besides, the
women had long before decoyed many of these disturbers of the peace
to their hammocks where they had tightly tied them in.

561. Our Warraus, whose talent for drinking I had already had
frequent opportunity for admiring, had utilised the auspicious occasion
to such an extent that by the following morning they were lying about in
all directions, and, like the Akawais, only awoke from their dissolute con-
dition late in the afternoon. According to all indications the effects
of this drink must be much more weakening and deadening than those
resulting from spirits. A large quantity of Ampullaria nrccus* which
some bustling women had already boiled and prepared by daybreak the
following morning, seemed to show pretty plainly that, like herring salad
with us, it serves as a pick-me-up for the disturbed nervous system. Tht»
mollusc is cooked in its shell, which is then broken and the entrails of the
creature removed : sprinkled with vinegar the muscular portions offer-
ed quite a delicious dish.

562. While some of the women were employed boiling the snails
others started afresh on their masticatory muscles so as to replace as
quickly as possible with a new flood the ebb that had set in within the
pots, and not let their worshipful masters miss their daily drink.

563. As with the Warraus so with the Akawais, the whole burden
of the labour falls upon the shoulders of the women, and I must give
them the praiseworthy testimony that during our stay amongst them they
never showed themselves idle. They had even to procure the firewood
for the hearth and for the fires under cur hammocks. The husband who

*A detailed monograph of the JmntiJJaria urcetis by Dr. Troschel is to be found in
Wiegmann's Archie fur Nqturgeschichte 1840

162

METEOROLOGICAL NOTES.

puts Ms hand to it possesses either only one wife, or else belongs to that
rare race among the natives — that of chivalrous husbands.

564. The weather ever remained the same. Heaven had not hitherto
vouchsafed us a single day without the heaviest downpour of rain,
unfortunately a grievous temperature for my collection of plants. If
I wanted to save at least something I was forced to have recourse to
heat, and even then the sappy specimens rotted under pres-
sure. Stockle and Florenz were accordingly occupied from morning
until night drying the papers before the fire, for which the former had
built a regular drying apparatus which, of course, on account of the
imprudence of the builder, only a few days after completion shot up in
flames, together with the greatest portion of the paper : a loss that
proved all the more distressing to me, as it could not be replaced.

565. After many a vainless vigil my brother finally succeeded in
fixing the situation of Manari astronomically: this was found to be
7° 35' 34" lat. N. and 59° 38' long. W. The meteorological observations
hitherto determined gave the following results : —

Record.

Barometer.

' Thermometer Fahrenheit.

Attached Ther-

In Inches.

mometer

Drv Bulb.

Wet Bulb.

Highest.

Fahrenheit.

30.176

89.0

88.4

83.4

Lowest.

30.018

72.2

68.0

Mean of 37

observations

30.092

78.5

75.0

75.2

taken hourly.

566. As my brother also wanted to get to know the Barima imme-
diately above the cataracts, he left in a little corial in company with Mr.
Glascott, paddled down the Manari for a bit and in short time, by means
of two of the natural junction-channels, the Gaima and Ataima, reached
the main stream. The incessant rain had not alone filled the Barima
to overflowing, but had also increased the current to such an extent that
the party, in spite of every effort, could only make slow headway. The
current was running at 4-4! miles per hour. After passing the mouths
of the small streams Ararisi, Sabritin, Burro p;;ru aid Mariwaballi,
they landed by evening of 28th June at the Warrau village of Simuita,
where the stream still had a breadth of 51 yards. On the following morn-
ing the barometer recorded 30.020 inches, and the thermometer 70.5
Fahrenheit. Although we had already here and there in the Barima
at Manari mouth seen exposed large fine-grained sand-stone
rocks which the Indians used for sharpening their knives and axes
on, they were nevertheless so isolated as to offer no hindrance to the

HEADWATERS OF THE

103

of boats, and tlie important cataract Mekorerussa, which the
party reached in the afternoon, accordingly constituted the first but
at the same time insurmountable stoppage : up to this point the Barinia
would offer the most suitable highway for steamers. According to the.
concurring statements of the Indians, my brother and Mr. Glascott were,
the first white people who had ever penetrated so far, a statement that
was confirmed by the fact that the course of the Bariuia proved to be
quite different from what had hitherto been laid down in the maps..
This observation determined them to continue their trip so far as the bed
of the stream allowed. Fall now followed upon Fall, the largest of which.
the Indians called Uropocari. Although the river maintained its previous
breadth, it nevertheless proved actually full of granite, until quartz, regu-
larly disposed in layers, soon after made its appearance on the surface.
During the course of the following day, after passing the mouth of m-any
a moderately large stream in the Barima, particularly the Wanama and
Mehokawaina, an insurmountable obstacle presented itself to their,
further progress in the innumerable trees which, tumbled one over
the other, crossed the river in all directions. They accordingly gave up.
the corial with which Mr. Glascott remained behind, my brother continu-
ing on foot in the company of several Indians. Their progress was ren-
dered difficult by numerous swamps and they had to fight their way
slowly through with an axe at every step. On the 1st July, after a long,
interruption, they struck again on a tributary of the Barima, which even
the Indians did not know of, because none of them had ever gone so far.
Owing to the numerous granite boulders that filled its bed, my brother
called it Rocky River. The Barima still showed a breadth of 30 feet here
where it coursed out of the W.N.W. and its bed was frequently intersect
ted by granite ridges. The whole vegetation testified to an unusual,
fertility of soil. The want of victuals which made itself now felt forced,
them to return, while the continuous rains had made it impossible for.
them to take any astronomical data. The meteorological observations
on tlie other hand <rave the following results: —

Record.

Barometer.

Thermometer Fahrenheit.

Attached Ther-

In Inches.

mometer Fah-

Dry Bulb.

Wet Bulb.

Highest.

renheit.

30.088

80.5

80.0

78.5

Lowest.

29.942

71.4

71.0

70.0

Mean of 37

observations

30.007 .

75.56

75.30

74.2

taken hourlv.

' " 1

The return journey down the Barima, hastened by the strong current,
wns accomplished in two and a half days, whereas the voyage up had
lasted six,

CHAPTER V.

.Splitting up of the Expedition — Return to the lower reaches of the
Essequibo — Nettvork of natural canals — River Whomana — Waini — O&-
stinacy of the Negroes— Barimani — Beara — Asacota Settlement — Man-
ndrs and customs of the Arawaks — Court day — Flora of the Barabara
"- River Morocco — Morocco Mission — Missionary Cullen — Colonies of
Ants — Mudbanks of the Coast — Mouth of the Pomeroon — A District of
abandoned estates — Hospital for lepers — Mr. Brett's Mission — Tapacuma
Lake — Wandering Ants.

567. The visible diminution of our provisions forced us to think
sooner about our departure than we had intended. The separation of
the healthy from the sick accordingly took place. The latter included
Mr. King, Hancock, myself, Sto'ckle, little Florenz, twelve of the boat-
hands, Caberalli, and, to the great joy of those remaining behind,
dementi, because these now dared hope to be able to sleep of a
morning: all attempts at breaking the chatterbox of the habit of com-
mencing his everlasting yarns at two o'clock in the morning, for which
habit his nickname ''The Cock'' had been given, had hitherto proved in
vain. Maicerwari and the two witnesses had also to accompany Mr.
King.

568. As we could not trust our corial on the waves and wild
weather of the sea we determined to make the return journey by a
safer route. As I have previously remarked, the Barima immediately be-
low the mouth of the Warina, is in communication with the Waini, by way
of the small streams Waburina, Sabaina, Iterite, and Morebo, as well as
by several natural itabbos: other itabbos junction up the Waini with
the Morocco which empties itself into the sea close to the mouth of the
Pomeroon. When one enters the Pomeroon a similar network of itabbos
carries the traveller into the Essequibo. This route was apparently the
most suitable and was chosen by us for more reasons than one. My
brother furthermore commissioned me to travel up the Essequibo as far
as Bartika Grove, and from there send him a corial with provisions to the
Cuyuni, since our small stock made us afraid that his party might run
short of food. On the evening before taking our departure the Manari
villagers again gave our Indian boat-hands a small drink party, at
which the Warraus were so .overcome that force had to be used to get
them out of their hammocks in the morning. My captain (steersman)
was nowhere to be found, and only after a long search did one of the
women find him lying senseless in the grass. As all attempts to make
him stand up failed. I had to have him carried to the corial, where he
continued in his comatose condition until evening, and on awakening
was not a little astonished to find himself once more in his boat in the
middle of the stream.

569. We were carried with tearing rapidity down towards the
Barima, which soon enclosed us within the giant growth of vegetation
along its banks. In spite of the current speeding almost as fast as an
arr,ow, Jiot a living thing in the dark foliage escaped the keen sight of

A FORMIDABLE MONSTER. 165

the Indians : they even spied out a snake lying coiled up upon one of the
branches, which I only discovered after a hard try. A shot from my
gun brought it down from its height fast enough, but not as fast into the
corial, for none of my people would agree to drag it into the boat, al-
though it was quite a harmless Herpetodryas lineatus Schleg. I accord-
ingly had to do the job myself, but when I stuck the spoil in the cask
tilled with spirits, their compassionate laughter never wanted to cea.se.
A small flotilla of corials that we met during the afternoon spread
unusual liveliness over the stream. It was Warraus who had come here
to catch Morocotu or Osibu (Myletcs] a very tasty tish that is invariably
caught in great numbers on its way up to spawn at the Falls of the
Barima where it regularly betakes itself during the rainy season. For
a bait that the fish can hardly withstand the Indians use the crushed-up
seeds of Carapa guiancnsis which they pack into lumps wound round
with thin bush-rope and, tied to a string, throw into the water. Numbers
of fish soon collect round these packages, and now is the time for the
sharp-sighted spear- thrower to pick out the best amongst them for his
never-erring aim. The Warraus, as well as ourselves, bartered a large
quantity of the catch they had won, an acquisition on which we congratu-
lated ourselves all the more in the evening when, on arrival at dementi's
place, we found the occupants left behind completely out of provisions.
Though our needs were checked for the time with the fish our anxieties
were nevertheless further increased by the prospect presented in the
course of the following day, when Oaberalli assured us that his place
would be the first settlement we should touch at.

570. Mr. King and I already anticipated the cursing and swearing
in which the Negroes would indulge when they found their usual travel-
ling rations diminishing, perhaps at last altogether disappearing, and
accordingly prepared ourselves for many a hard struggle that without
doubt we would have to share. With prospects thus clouded, we said
good-bye next morning to the oft-times cursed chatterbox Clement!,
bought up the whole of the provisions available, and resumed our journey
in the hope that our supplies would perhaps be replenished by fish or
game. During the course of the afternoon when my corial was somewhat
behind, I noticed the paddlers in front suddenly point to a spot on the
riverside and, gesticulating wildly, pull out into the middle of the
stream as fast as they could. Impelled by curiosity, I ordered my men
to pull harder, and soon learning the cause of the commotion through a
cry of "Snake," had all my work cut out to prevent them making oft*
at top speed. The huge brute lay coiled like an anchor-rope upon a thick
branch of a tree projecting over the water where it was sunning itself.
I had already seen many a large Boa murina (Eunectcs murinus Wagl.),
the Comudi of the Colonists, but never yet a specimen of such size. I
struggled long within myself, being undecided whether I should take it
or pass by and leave it. All the awful pictures that had been painted
for my benefit concerning the mighty strength of these snakes, and that
had made me tremble as a boy, were now called to mind, and the repre-
sentations of the Indians that if not mortally wounded at the first shot,
this reptile would without doubt seize and easily upset the corial in its

166 BRINGING DOWN THE TERROR.

coils, as had often proved to be the case, coupled with the visible terror
of Stockle who charged me in. the name of his forefathers as well as my
own not to expose ourselves heedlessly to such dangers, decided me upon
giving up the attack and proceeding on my way in peace. But hardly
had we passed the spot than, ashamed of my want of resolution, I ordered
the paddlers to turn back. I loaded both barrels with the coarsest shot
and some slugs, an example that was followed by the most courageous
one of my Indians. We slowly made our way back to the tree where
the snake was still lying in the same place. On a given signal, both of
us let fly : luckily hit, the colossal creature fell headlong and after a few
convulsive movements, was carried down with the current. Full of glee
we paddled hard after it and soon reaching it, dragged it into the boat.
Although everybody was convinced that it was quite dead, Stockle and
Florenz did not consider themselves at all too safe in its vicinity:
screaming and whining, both heroes flung themselves on the bottom when
they saw the creature, 151ft, long and 2 }ft. girth, lying in front
of them, and now and again moving its tail. The ease with which wq
had overcome it was due to the effect of the slugs of which one had
smashed the backbone and the other the head. A wound like this,
especially in the head, as I subsequently often had opportunity of ob-
serving, costs the biggest snake immediate loss of action and movement.
The shouting as well as the shooting had brought back the boats hurrying
ahead: they never for a moment imagined that we were going to attack
the animal and Mr. King, completely confirming the statements of the
Indians, reproached me on my undertaking. Upon one of his recent
journeys a similar monster, 18 feet long, was only killed at the seventh
ball.

571. As the space in the corial was too limited, I buoyed myself up
with the hope that we should be soon finding a night's shelter where I
could skin it. We left the Barima at the mouth of the small stream
Whoinana or Maruiwa, into which we turned.

572. The stream was fairly broad for a considerable distance, so that
we could quickly follow its course. The farther we advanced however,
the narrower it became, and the oftener had axes and hatchets to be used
to cut a passage-way for the two large boats in between the trees that
were tumbled one over the other. The banks of the Whomana proved
to be very low and completely flooded on both sides: it was evident
that we had consequently once more reached the area where reigned
the Manicaria, Euterpe, Bactris, Maximiliana, and Oenocarpus. Bushy
Mimosac and species of Ficus hemmed in the riversides with their moss-
covered trunks and branches while the taller foliage-trees of opposite
banks actually joined hands to form a gloomy leafy canopy over the
stream, the sombre silence of which wras occasionally broken by the flutter-
ing of a solitary bird, Pipra auricapilla Licht. or P. leucocilla Linn. The
creek narrowed at last to such an extent that we had to battle with the
axe for every 5ft. broad streak of water : the navigable channel suf-
ficed all right for the small vessels of the Indians, but not for our 40ft.
long and 5ft. broad corials. Though previously we had not even, heard
the dull hammering of the woodpeckers or the shri eking of the parrots

A PRECARIOUS NIGHT'S LODGING. 167

hastening to their haven of rest, the forest now re-echoed in all directions
with the never-resting blows of the axes, the shouting of our boathands,
and the laughter of the Indians accompanying us. A large number of
boa constrictors seemed to have chosen the banks of the stream for their
childbed, for a large number of their five to six foot long and correspond-
ingly thick young brood were encamped upon the trees bending over Die
creek, so that on striking the axe into the trunk of such an one, and
making it shake, several would fall into the corial and terrify the Negroes
so much as to make them jump yelling into the water. This dread gave
the Indians plenty of sport, and as often as they noticed a snake upon an
overhanging tree, they also struck the branches with their paddles and
drove the frightened creatures down into Die midst of the shivering Blacks,

573. The sun had long sunk below the horizon, and yet we searched'
in vain for a dry spot where we could sling our hammocks and camp the
night. We had already made up our minds for the inevitable, and to spend
the night in the narrow confines of the corial, when one of the Indians
told me that a fire must be burning close ahead somewhere as he could
smell the smoke. All the other Indians strained their olfactory nerves
to corroborate the happy tidings, by similar observation, but in vain — •
the first man who reported a fire in the neighbourhood stood alone in his
convictions. Discouraged over the disappointment we continued our
journey, when suddenly a general cry of joy afforded the ridiculed
Indian absolute confirmation of his sharp sense of smell, for at some
distance ahead blue columns of smoke between the darkigreen palm-
fronds indicated the presence of Man. On nearing the spot, we dis-
tinctly recognised three people, and in them our old acquaintance, chief
Marawari of Honobo with two of his wives who were then on their wav
to Georgetown. The fire nevertheless was not burning on dry ground
but flamed up from an old tree-trunk, while the three hammocks were
slung up over the water surface on to trees standing close to one another,
an expedient to which we also had to have recourse, whereby the Indians
had to carry us on their shoulders to our roosts. Our night's lodging
swaying over the water made it impossible for me to skin the Boa that day
and by next morning the specimen had gone completely putrid, an occur-
rence that I all the more deplored because I never met an example of
equal size again. When on tho following morning we woke shivering
with cold and our teeth chattering, we found our hammocks and clothes
quite wet from the damp.

574. In company with Marawari who knew the complicated course
of the channel well enough, we continued our journey and passed the
Waburina and the Iterite. The outward hindrances to our progress
were indeed slighter than the day before, but in their stead the strike
amongst the obstinate Negroes that we had been afraid of in Warina, now
came to a head. Marawari was just as short of provisions as we were and
had already shared his supplies with us the evening liefore. With the
flooding over of the banks not only had the game drawn back to the
heights in the interior, but the fish now revelling on the many fruits, etc.,
to be found in between the forest trees, took no notice of the baits cast
to them. Even the small Pipra which still showed up here and there as

168 QUELLING INCIPIENT MUTINY.

late as yesterday, had disappeared to-day. The essential difference
separating the Indian character from that of the Negro had never pre-
sented itself so vividly before ine as it did on this occasion. Our Indians
bore the pangs of hunger in silence with stoic steadfastness and tried,
by quickening their paddle-stroke, to put an end to the trouble as quickly
as they could. The majority of the Negroes and coloured people on the
other hand, what with cursing and swearing, had downed paddles about
midday, and all our warnings and entreaties to take them up again were
met with sneers like : — "Give us something to eat first : a hungry stomach
can't work," or "We don't want to work for a man from whom we get
nothing to eat'- — in short, the paddles remained idle, and if we only
wanted to get along at all it was necessary to distribute our steady faith-
ful Indians and the few better-minded Ulacks proportionately in and
among the boats. By evening we indeed found a dry spot for our night's
lodging, but could only rejoice a little over this bit of luck because our
rebellious company sang a dissolute lullaby and actually seemed intent
upon banishing sleep from us altogether by abusive language and the
most senseless noise. Mr. King stood this nonsense for a long while
without saying a word, as he attributed their impudence to the score of
hunger: but as it ever became more evident that their troublesome be-
haviour arose solely from ingrained evil disposition, he lost patience
and swore solemnly that he would leave tehind at the next Indian settle-
ment everybody who refused to put up patiently with what could not be
helped — and then each could fish for himself as to how best to find his
way back to Georgetown. As it was, Mr. King could not legally drop
any disturber of the peace elsewhere than at gome inhabited place. The
effect of the threat was surprising, for their fast and blaspheming mouths
were suddenly silenced as if by magic. Only two obstinate fellows would
not be intimidated, but continued to threaten and to curse as before.

575. {Still further pressed by hunger we resumed our journey in the
morning, when, to the great joy of the boat-hands, we reached before
noon the beautiful broad Waiiii by way of the Sabaina and Morebo.
We were even more delighted on unexpectedly noticing in the distance
two small vessels paddling along. Pulling now in double quick time, we
had got tolerably close when the Indians, who happened to be in them,
seemed to become suspicious of our feverish and impetuous haste, and to
fear hostilities. They accordingly tried to escape us and without doubt
would have succeeded in doing so had not the shouting of our Indians
that they had nothing to fear reassured and prevailed upon them to
stop. The first question asked them was naturally whether they had
anything to eat. Except a fair number of crabs (Uca una Margr.,
Cancer cordatus Herbst.) which they had caught at the Waini mouth
they had not the slightest thing to offer. We quickly swapped a boatload-
ful for knives, beads, and looking-glasses and now looked for a place
where we could at least soothe the rebellious maws and spend the night.
As no suitable spot offered itself in the vicinity of the river-bank, since
5t was over-grown with an absolutely impenetrable tangle of
Rkizopliora, Aviccnnia and Conocarpus, and in addition was still flooded,
Aiberalli proposed our turning into one of the innumerable small forest

A RAVENOUS CREW. 169

streams that here fall into the Waini on both sides, where we might hope
to attain our object with far greater probability. Although we were
still about 70 miles distant from the Waini mouth the effects of ebb and
flow were distinctly visible. Caberalli's proposal was accepted, and the
first rise, on which we moreover found some travellers' shelters, was
heartily welcomed. When the Indians on their numerous journeys find
suitable spots for spending the night they hastily erect small shelter-
sheds covered with palm-leaves in which to protect themselves from
rain, and sling their hammocks : these huts one sees on almost all rivers
and subsequent occupiers are supposed to keep them in repair. A post
stuck into the banks is the surest sign to an Indian that a shelter of
this description is to be found in the near distance. But the roof that
gives protection to the men unfortunately offers a sure asylum for
snakes, scorpions, the Scolopendra morsitans, and the bird-spider
(My gale avicularia) for which reason a complete dispersal of these
dangerous sleeping-partners must be ensured beforehand by means of
smoke.

576. Never before had our boathands jumped out of the corials so
quickly, never yet had the wood been transported so rapidly to the four
tires blazing cheerfully away, as it was to-day. Everything that only
bore resemblance to a pot, everything that held water, was pushed on to
the fire. To wait until the water boiled proved far too long for severa!
of the Negroes, who in spite of all dissuasions on our part accordingly
threw the crabs alive into the fire to let them roast a little before devour.*
ing them. Anybody who has ever been in the predicament off having to
satisfy with river-crab the hunger caused by fatiguing work on a two
clays' fast will also know the agony which the stomach of a voracious
eater suffers when its most urgent requirements have to be satisfied with
continuous small doses. Even had the crab contained say four times
more flesh than that of one of our large cray-fish, it was nevertheless but
a drop upon a glowing hot stone. PTavdly was a pot emptied of its last
boiled crustacean, than it was immediately refilled until finally the very
last remaining crab put an end to all further hopes of satisfying the
hunger still experienced. The meal had continued an hour and a half
during which period no sounds were heard other than the working of the
jaws, the breaking of the legs and claws, and the sucking of the flesh out
of them : it was only when the final unit had disappeared that this noise
stopped, and the dissatisfaction of the Negroes proclaimed afresh. I am
absolutely convinced that had the number of crabs offered them been even
six times greater, they would not have rested until the last full claw had
been devoured.

577. Hardly -had we sought our hammocks than the rain fell like a
water-spout. The thatching of the simple huts in which we rested was
too weak to offer opposition to such a volume of water. Innumerable
streams that trickled down from the roof changed our hammocks into in-
hospitable basins and drove us from our cover. It was an awful night
and when morning broke, and the opened flood-gates of Heaven finally
closed, our limbs were shivering and shaking with cold. We cast one
more glance upon our camp which almost put us in mind of the confusion

170 GOURMANDS PAY THE PENALTY.

on a battlefield, and then quickly took to the boats so as to get rid of
our chilly sensations by muscular exertion with the paddles. The sky
seemed to have exhausted itself in its fury, so that we dared hope to
secure a night's rest in dry hammocks. The delightful prospect of reach-
ing his village to-day, where Caberalli was never tired of telling us about
the many fowls and the quantity of cassava bread that would be found,
strained every languishing muscle anew. The Jbroad Waini with its
dirty water and uniform river-side clothing was soon once more reached :
and thanks to the ebb that had set in, we hurried quickly down stream
to our longed-for goal. But the results consequent on yesterday's
gluttony and damage to their stomachs, as well as on their exposure to
the wet and unfavourable night soon made themselves patent : fever and
diarrhoea became general among the boathands whose strength for
paddling was diminishing every hour.

578. Towards midday we reached the mouth of the Barimani which
empties itself here into the Waini from the southeast on its eastern
bank, and at the same time constitutes one of the largest tributaries, its
breadth amounting to more than 300 feet. The vegetation of its banks
along which we now made our way, showed at first slight or no difference
from that of the Waini. Only by little and little did it take on another
character. The low overflooded banks again became covered with
Laurineac, Leguminosae, Riibiaccac, Melastomaceae, and Bombaceae al-
though all these families so far as regards size and luxuriance, were far
inferior to those that we came across on the Barima: even the Mora
excelsa reached scarcely half the height and circumference of its rela-
tives on that river, where I have already attempted to portray its huge
size. The Manicaria,, Lcopoldinia, and Euterpe, the last-mentioned
overladen with ripe berries, even still formed the immediate limits of the
banks while innumerable parakeets and parrots, and here and there a
Penelope cristata offered a light and dainty morning-meal. Our weapons
that had rested so long were accordingly quickly got out and at last put
to use again : unfortunately we had no opportunity of turning them on
the Marudis, for these considered it advisable to hurry off before we could
get within shot.

579. With the newly awakened display of Life surrounding us, the
strength and spirits of our boathands became revived. Numbers of.
Tanagra and Euphone twittered as they flew from branch to branch; a
solitary king-fisher, scared by us while watching for its prey, rose ahead
with its guttural cry ; and the proximity of wandering troops of monkeys
was betrayed by a shrill howling, amidst the dark foliage of the tree?.
If the depression under which we hitherto laboured had been obliterated
to a large extent by this refreshingly vivid wealth of nature, the warm
invigorating sunshine now completely dispelled it. But the more the
delightful landscapes' of the neighbourhood inclined us to be cheerful,
the more striking was the want of harmony that upset this inclination
when the brutality of our Negroes once more aroused our indignation.

580. During the last few days even our tame parrots, apparently
overcome with surprise at hearing none of the bird-calls of their un-
fettered friends, had occupied their perches in silence. But now that

SAVAGE EXHIBITION OF CRUELTY. 171

they once again saw their kith and kiu flying over the river they burst
into such wild shrieks of delight that some of the Negroes, vexed at the
joy of these harmless creatures, seized their birds and, before AVC could
prevent them, broke their necks and threw them into the water. I must
admit that nothing had as yet cut into my heart so deeply as this callous
brutality, and Stockle exhausted the whole of his rich vocabulary of
swear-words in calling the Negroes "useless devil's brats whom the dear
God would soon punish for killing such poor little innocent creatures in
the outburst of their joy that really hurt no one," etc. The expression
of general indignation seemed still further to increase the wickedness of
the Negroes, for they sat idly in the corial without moving a limb, and
swore 'they would not take a paddle in their hands again : Mr. King
was however, just as determined to leave the two incorrigible ringleaders
behind at Caberalli's village.

581. After a time we reached the mouth of the Beara, which streams
into the Barimani on the southern bank : the former shows, it is true, only
an inconsiderable width, but, on the other hand, a stronger current.
From- what Caberalli said, the Barimani must form a lake-like expansion
a few miles above the mouth of the Beara, to which several small
streams flow, and first receives its name from this spot. The commencing
ebb still further increased the current of the Beara which even up here
still exercised its full effects on the dark brown water. Its rise and fall
amounted to from 6 to 7 feet. The banks were exposed to flooding to
just the same extent as those of the Barimani, and shewed an almost
impenetrable growth of palm above which the Turn (Oenocarpus Batana
Mart. ) and Maximiliana raised their proud heads. The immediate river
border was occupied by clusters of the elegant Bactris acanthocarpa and
Astrocari/um with which the beautiful shapes of the Lepidocaryum
(jracile, Euterpe oleracea and Leopoldinia were joined in such close
array that their fronds formed an almost impenetrable labyrinth to one's
gaze. The graceful and easy curve of these long delicately-shaped leaves,
their dainty movement as they swayed higher and lower in the light puffs
of evening breeze, together with the rustle peculiar to the palms, to which
they give rise, as well as the witching splendour that the parting sun-
shine at the same time poured over their glorious green — all combined
to cast an irresistible spell over heart and eyes and to banish the upset
to our feelings caused by the brutality of the men only a short while
before.

582. The creeping plants that never ceased their effort, succeeded
in effecting with these dense masses of frond what never happened with
any foliage tree: overladen with fragrant flowers, they gleamed down
from the outermost tips of the highest specimens, and bound palm to
palm in aerial festoons. Absorbed in the contemplation of this fairy-
l\ke spectacle I had omitted noticing anything else, and was not a little
surprised when Mr. King drew my attention to the bows of a dismasted
schooner rising out of the water in front of the nose of our corial. We
naturally turned for enquiry to Caberalli who shewed himself prepared
to explain this puzzling phenomenon as far as it lay in his power. He
told us that while he was yet a little boy, the schooner appeared one day

172 REACHING THE PROMISED LAND-.

to fetch timber in the neighbourhood, the captain expecting to make his
way back to the coast by the itabbos : his arrival however happened to be
in the dry season when the river bed gets drained and the water, owing
to the flood tide reaching up to here, becomes at the same time absolutely
unpalatable: this and a number of other disappointments led to the
desertion of the crew who, clandestinely making off with the ship's boat,
managed to get home again; some days later the captain was found
marooned with his vessel by a party of Indians who got him back to the
coast, but by the time he returned with new hands the schooner was not
only plundered, but also sunk, since it had supplied the wants of all the
neighbouring natives in the way of nails, iron, boards, and the like. In
the proximity of the coast the wreck would hardly have attracted any
attention, but in this desert it aroused our liveliest interest, and in later
times will perhaps afford occasion for the most curious conjectures to
many a European who happens to venture so far inland. t

583. The mouth of the small stream Asacota which we greeted with
a loud hurrah lay immediately opposite the derelict on the western bank
of the Beara. Since the feed of crabs, so pregnant in its results, nothing
had passed our lips, and it was therefore with all the keener interest
that we drew near to Caberalli's home in the Asacota, of which he had
sketched us such a pleasant picture — the promised land that flowed with
milk and honey where a plenteous supply of provisions would put an
end to our misery, that happy Paradise where girls, even prettier than
the daughters of the Waika chief, would toast us with the drinking cups.
What was therefore more natural then, that even before reaching the
village we should have made up our minds to spend a few days in it!

584. The mouth of the Asacota was so hidden in dense thicket and
scrub that only a well-informed person could have found it, and there
involuntarily crossed my mind the statement of Waterton, the celebrated
English traveller, when he spoke of a river-mouth thus concealed, as
probably resembling completely the path trodden by Orpheus on his
return from the Styx with his beloved Eurydice, because Ovid's descrip-
tion "Arduus, obliquus, caligene densus opaca"* exactly suited it. The
intervening spaces between the branches of the bushes were filled with
innumerable blossoms and leaves of lovely orchids such as: Stanhopca,
Zygopetalum, Burlingtonia,, Rodriffuezia, several species of Gongora,
Maxillaria, and Bifrenaria.

585. Caberalli with his corial in the lead made his way through the
apparently impenetrable barrier, we others following him up the snake-
like course of the stream until a building at last rose ahead of us on a
cleared space. Caberalli who was waiting us here addressed himself to
Mr. King and explained that he had had the house built for him, so
that on his subsequent journeys of inspection he would be saved the
heavv journey up the Asacota to his own settlement. On each subse-
, — ___^___^_— _^__ _ — — •-

t The belief amongst the present-day Warraus is that a Spanish treasure-ship was
sunk here by the Caribs who slaughtered the crew. I myself have dived into the spot, but
found no trace of the vessel, a boom of which appears to have been noticed by the present
Warrau captain, John Coxall of Warramuri, when a boy.— Ed.

* Ovid. Metamorph. X 54.

DANGEKS or SWAMP SAVANNAH. 173

quent visit all that Mr. King had therefore to do was to fire his gun three
times as soon as he got there when he or his people would come and lay
their difficulties or wants before him.

586. However flattering this attention was for Mr. King, it was
very unpleasant for us to hear Caberalli say that our bigger corials could
get no farther, and would therefore have to be left here. Our firm
promise to send them the longed-for provisions immediately after arrival
at the village prevailed upon two of our people, who could be depended
on, to stay behind with the large boats, while we others divided ourselves
up amongst the smaller ones. Several cleared spaces which we passed
indicated the probable situations of isolated settlements of former times
until finally, the stream ever becoming more insignificant, we- reached
a small savannah or rather a swamp that was completely overgrown
with reed and cutting-grass to a height here and there of from four to
five feet. The whole flat might be perhaps a quarter of an hour's walk
in breadth and an hour's in length : yet the breadth was not everywhere
equal, because the hemming-in forest drew back in some spots and
advanced in others. During the continuation of my journey to the
coast I found such swampy grass-flats to be fairly frequent from now
onwards. Their substructure consists of deep mud covered over with a
vegetable decking of grass, rush and reed, which however is strong
enough to carry the weight of a man, although it continually sways under
foot like the rise and fall of a wave. This peculiar swaying of an
apparently firm soil reminded me forcibly of many a light-hearted
mischievous scene of my boyhood's days when, in spite of the danger
threatening, we yelled with enjoyment and coursed along in foolhardy
presumption over the ice-flats melting under the rays of the spring sun.
Just as a terrible punishment beneath" the deceptive covering threatened
our foolhardiness there, so here any attempt to stride over the swaying
cover of intertwined rootlets may end in a still more dangerous abyss,
from which the person sinking cannot extricate himself without speedy
assistance, but, entangled in the innumerable tentacles of the roots, must
meet with a terrible death from suffocation.

587. The forest growth enclosing this swamp-savannah through
which the Asacota follows an ever winding course, appeared regularly
dwarfed in certain spots whilst, on several elevations beyond, it had
assumed its previous grandeur.

588. We finally reached the landing whence a 12-foot broad pathway
led straight to the village of Asacota situate on one of the rises ahead of
us. That we more than doubled the pace towards this tempting goal
can naturally be imagined by anyone who has been starving for over 24
hours.

589. In the midst of a horrible din of the most varied sounds from
innumerable tame monkeys, macaws, parrots, and dogs which thereby
wanted either to welcome or scare us, we made our way into the settle-
ment. We preferred a welcome, because Repulse could not have been
withstood : hunger had made us so wild and contentious, that at all events
Force would have been opposed to Force. The chastening sticks of
their irate masters and mistresses convinced us quickly enough, however,

174 CABERALLI'S STUONGHOLD.

that we liud nothing to fear. Hardly was peace re-established thaii tUc
vdiole of the residents hastened to obey Caberalli's orders. The men
caught up their guns, bows and fishing-rods, while the adult portion oi
the female sex was not even vouchsafed sufficient time to scrutinise the
strange unexpected guests more closely. The first order of the attentive
chief was to collect the whole of the bread and meat supply in the settle-
ment and heap it in one of the houses, to put the pepper-pots on the fire,
and to make bread of the cassava in stock. While this was being carried

out by some of the women with the greatest diligence, others hurried off
with baskets to fetch fresh cassava from the field.

590. I shall never forget my delight on the first bit of bread passing
my lips, and wten with a really ravenous appetite we devoured a meal
that everybody would have considered too large for double the number
of consumers. Immediately after our arrival an Indian carried the
promised rations to our watchmen who had remained behind with the
large corials.

591. Our host, honest Caberalli, indeed carried out his promise to
the very letter. Without thinking of himself he searched every house,
threw the overjoyed Hamlet here a pair of fowls, after twisting their
necks, and there a bundle of yams or plantains — in fact, nothing
remained hidden from his inquisitive search which the hurry of the
surprised housewives might have forgotten, or anxiety for their own
requirements had retained. Friend Hamlet was soon surrounded with
heaps of the most varied provisions so that at last he did not even
rightly know which to begin with. The tireless chief devoted similar
attention to the Warraus accompanying us.

592. After the turbulent demands of the inner man had been satisfied
I took a more careful survey of our surroundings. The houses were
generally large and roomy, and not only in their construction, but also in
respect of cleanliness and the love of order that prevailed under their
roofs, were in no way inferior to those of the Waikas. A large number
of the male residents wore coloured-print shirts, many among the
females being clothed in the same way. Associated with these naturally
unmistakable signs of advanced culture were still others appertaining to
household arrangements, such as tables, chairs, etc: in fact everything
that Caberalli had bragged about concerning his residence stood the test
of truth, while the high praise- bestowed by him on the beautiful young
girls of his tribe, which to be sure we had already heard extolled in.
Georgetown, appeared to be no vain boast at all. Their whole figure
was distinguished not only by a beautiful evenness of shape, but particu-
larly by the vigorous fullness of their limbs. An expression of meekness^
peculiar to the race, lent a higher charm to the facial features of sufficient
interest otherwise, and the Jong brilliant black hair which either hung
down in two pretty plaits or was twined round the crown after the style of
a spiral nest contributed an essential ornament to their full figures. The
men wore their hair cut short. The painting with Arnatto is not cus-
tomary with them : in its place the female sex especially tattoo both
corners of the mouth, and the situations of the eye-brows, which have
been carefully pulled out in early childhood. The pattern oyer the eyes

THE BEAUTIFUL ARAWAKS. 176

consists of a straight line from which several parallel ones extend at
right-angles up the forehead, while from each corner of the mouth either
one or two curve-like decorations reach up to the temples so as to
resemble a moustache curled up at the ends. The colour of their skin is
not darker than that of Spaniards and Italians. Whether they have
given up the body-painting on account of their intimate intercourse with
the Colonists, or whether it was ever at all indigenous to the Arawaks, I
have not been able to learn.

593. The hospitality of Caberalli went so far that he immediately
put his house at our disposal: this was conspicuous among all the rest
not only by its size but also by its comfortable internal arrangements.
Soon after our Negroes had filled their maws, an extraordinary change
seemed to have taken place in their state of health, for the fever had disap-
peared without leaving a trace, and the two ringleaders regarded each
other cheerily: they did not seem to be worried in the least when Mr.
King passed sentence- and told them that from now onwards they need
not count further upon us, from whom they had nothing more to expect,
and that they must look for some other means of returning to George-
town. Their confidence in finding a place in Caberalli's corial or some
other Indian's that might be leaving for the coast as opportunity offered,
and the hope of being able to pander here in the meantime to the
comforts of the belly, made them regard the verdict in a far from serious
light: they nevertheless .bitterly deceived themselves.

594. Just as we had settled down in our new home, the women and
girls who had been despatched to the cassava fields returned with filled
baskets and truly they entirely vindicated the reputation of their tribe,
for each new face always seemed to me prettier than the last. Among
the coastal Indians the Waikas at all events possess the finest men, the
Arawaks on the other hand the finest women. The language also of the
Arawaks, and to a greater extent that of the women, has something so
melodious and sweet-sounding about it that I might very pertinently
compare it with the Italian. In tone and modulation of voice they
always suit themselves to the situation or circumstances in which the
object of which they are speaking happens to be. Thus one of Caberalli's
wives mentioned in an oppressed, wailing and whining tone, that her
mother during his absence had been dangerously sick : all the others
expressed similar deep grief in the subdued ring of the voice when the
conversation happened to concern this woman. The more charmed I
was with these signs of sympathy for the misfortunes of others, the more
surprised was I on becoming witness of the really uncharitable treatment
which a sick person receives at their hands. This neglect of the suffering
is constant in all circumstances, and is just as much a failing with
parents and intimate connections as it is with those far distantly related.

595. If anyone is confined to his hammock by sickness, it would seem
that the unfortunate individual scares every Irving thing out of his way.
Without one word of comfort or sympathy the housewife places the food
close to the sick-bed, but no one makes enquiries as to his wants or
wishes: everything that lie may require he must first of all ask for.
Although, for the rest, the sick woman of whom I spoke suffered from

176 How THE WOMEN MOURN.

dropsy to a very high degree and was rapidly nearing dissolution, she did
not betray her sufferings by any sound: I heard her neither moan nor
groan, which certainly would not have escaped me as she lay quite
close by.

596. A peculiarity worthy of remark in the language of the
Arawaks appeared to me in that it possesses several words which only
the men, and others which only the women give expression to: thus
among the former "yes" is "ehe," with the women it is "tare."

597. I was horrified when Mr. King drew my attention to the men's
calves, and saw them covered with scars to such a degree that in some
cases I could not find a single finger-breadth's space that was sound. I
will mention the cause of these wounds subsequently, because I learnt
it by personal experience.

598. Polygamy is indigenous also among the Arawaks, and a chief
often possesses four to five wives. Amongst (he many friendly females
I was especially struck by some young women who had not only been
despoiled of all their finery and ornaments, but even of the generally
worn print clothing and their beautiful hair. On enquiring the reason
for this extraordinary appearance, I learnt that their husbands had died
some while ago and that this was the sign of sorrow over their loss. So
when the head of the family dies, the nearest relatives of the deceased
come and crop the hair of his wives who have also to. doff their clothes
during the period of mourning. It is not until the hair has grown to a
certain length that the women are allowed to resume their garments, or
to lay aside their widowhood.

599. Yet it is not only in these peculiarities, but also in their whole
remaining customs and habits of life, as observed during my subsequent
stay amongst them, that it became still more manifest that the
Arawaks differ essentially from all other tribes of British Guiana. Their
traditions concerning the creation of the world, of a deluge, etc., testified
plainly that they occupy a higher plane of culture than most other
natives. The men possess a really rare skill in plaiting what they call
Pegals, baskets with the most beautiful ancient-Greek patterns: they
utilise for their manufacture the outer bast-sheath of the stalk of a
Calatliea which they cut in long strips and colour in various
ways. These baskets and their plaited water-proof trunks, of which
the latter are made double-lined with the Cnlathca leaves placed in be-
tween, constitute a main article of trade with Georgetown, particularly
the trunks which, on account of their lightness, are especially suitable
for travelling-cases. Alongside this -desirable "trade" manufactured by
the men, can be placed the less readily bought earthenware pottery of the
women. The shape of this ware has also much resemblance with that of
the old Etruscan, while the large goblets are particularly valued on
account of their excellent property of generally keeping the water inside
them cool. The sellers usually spend the proceeds of their sale on
objects of a more convenient domestic setting.

600. The news of Mr. King's arrival must have spread itself fairly
quickly, because by earliest dawn there had already arrived whole pro-
cessions of Indians from out of the neighbouring settlements to bring

NOVEL DIVORCE PROCEEDINGS. 177

their complaints, troubles and contentions for adjustment before the
highest tribunal, before Mr. King, whom they all caUed "Fiscal," a term
which probably was more familiar to them from the old Dutch times than
the new title "Superintendent."

601. This simple legal public procedure, than which neither the Bar
of England nor France could offer a inure interesting spectacle, occupied
my whole attention: the clean unvarnished truth, and Nature in the
expression of its most heterogeneous emotions, spreading a peculiar charm
over the animated scene. Although it might not have been Mr. King's
intention to hold Court to-day, he nevertheless considered it necessary,
owing to the large number of complaints. The chief case was a divorce :
a young and very beautiful Arawak who had married a Warrau sought
judicial separation because her husband had treated her so tyrannically
of late that hardly a day passed without her being beaten, and in addi-
tion to that he had sold all her property. As Mr. King was just as little
conversant with the Arawak language as I was, Caberalli acted as
interpreter.

602. After Mr. King had once more heard the complaint, he called
upon the witnesses, and every attentive listener, even if he did not know a
single word of the language, could already gather the whole history of
joy and sorrow that this young woman had experienced from the tone
and modulation of voice of those who were called on her behalf. The
first witness was an oldish woman who, with an admirable flexibility of
voice, portrayed the complete life-story of the unhappy married creature,
an echo as it were of her happiness and her suffering. With brisk and
passionately excited voice she described first of all the beauty of the
unfortunate creature up to the time when as a girl she would hurry still
with a light step through the village and all the Arawak youth looked
at and longed for her, whereupon she pointed to all the men standing
aside of her in the circle, who were said to have belonged to the crowd
of the complainant's admirers : with equally vigorous and not less proud
tone she enumerated the presents which she had had heaped upon her by
the young men : and yet when alone on her way to the field, or when
hurrying off by herself to the forest, she had not deigned to look at them :
she had given her smile to none — and now the hitherto fiery and
animated voice became more subdued and gradually sadder and heavier,
whereby she probably wanted to express the surprise and astonishment
caused by the pretty wench disdaining the Arawaks and choosing a
Warrau. The Warrau, she continued, came to the village and found
favour in the eyes of the prettiest girl in the settlement, and the hitherto
only suppressed melancholy utterance changed to a deprecating and
whining note, as she described the parting from her parents and her
girl friends: until at last, when recounting the rapid change in the young
people's matrimonial relations, she let her voice fall into a weeping and
wailing key. Within a short while the Warrau had then sold his wife's
finery, her presents, and her print-cloth, and had beaten and even
threatened to kill her. It was this threat that had induced the woman to
leave her husband and run off to her parents. But the man was still in
possession of her remaining property, of which he refused to give delivery.

178 THE RESPONDENT'S DEFENCE.

603. After this witness had stated her case thus characteristically,
there followed the examination of yet several others, both women and
men, the latter developing a similar modulation of voice, if not to the
same extent.

U04. Although during the whole examination of the witnesses I
watched the married couple who were standing their trial, with active
interest, my attention was riveted in a still greater degree upon the
complainant when Mr. King now directed his enquiry to her. With
downcast eyes the really beautiful young woman answered all the
charges in that plaintive and subdued tone with which the first witness
had described the scenes of unhappiness. At first she fixed her eyes
intently upon a particular spot on the ground and only later did she raise
her ,head just for a moment, probably to convince herself of the im-
pressions her replies were making upon Mr. King. The same deep
sense of suffering expressed in her features and :L the whole of her bearing
had spread itself over all the women around. The defendant husband who
stood apart and alone on the opposite side, directed his proud and stead-
fast looks at Mr. King, though he now and again let his glance fall upon
his wife. I must admit that the woman's choice could not meet with
disapproval, for although I had seen so many Warraus, I had never yet
noted a man of such faultless physique, with so daring and spirited a
gaze. His long, black, thick, and at the same time somewhat curly hair
was carefully combed and covered with a broad straw hat. Below the
eyes, thrilling with fire yet at the same time imbued with a melancholy
and half contemptuous look, sloped a well-developed aquiline nose — in
short, his whole appearance reminded me of the picture of a hero of the
Spanish Guerillas in fancy costume, rather than a member of the
NVarrau tribe. His mental faculties seemed to harmonise entirely with
his physical pre-eminence, for he carried out his defence with sucll grit
and sucli a stream of eloquence, that my surprise was ever on the in-
crease. According to Caberalli's translation it came out that he deemed
his wife's laziness as great as her beauty, a reproach which he expressed
by a comparison between her and a sloth. When returning from a trip,
a hunting or fishing expedition, he had never found anything but empty
pots, never a drink of paiwari, so that he had always to beg something
from a neighbour. At first he had reproved his wife and then warned
her — but all to no purpose : as things were on the one day, so they
remained the next, and only too soon did he and his lazy wife become
the butt and bye-word of the whole village. Such a disgrace however a
VVarrau could not stand. Although he readily admitted that beating
was only intended for dogs, he had been unable to control himself any
longer and had struck his wife: but even this had done her no good,
and he would rather have nothing more to do with her.

605. Though the Warrau, during his wife's complaint, had stood
quite motionless and without moving a muscle of his face, staring fixedly
in front of him, his wife on the other hand, judging from the active and
painful struggle depicted upon her features, betrayed how little she
could control the mental excitement, the agony, which these probably false
charges hac] aroused in her. With every fresh accusation, with each

KEN MUST BEAT THE LAZY ONES. 179

reproach attaining its climax, she raised her passionate face for a second,
glanced at her husband with a pained yet at the same time deeply con-
temptuous expression, and then let her head sink upon her shoulders
again. Our Warraus, but particularly Maicerwaii, watched and
listened with the most rapt attention to the whole course of the
enquiry without a sound of approval or disapproval escaping them.

606. Mr. King accordingly felt himself at least bound to punish the
Warrau for having assaulted his wife, and got Caberalli to explain how
wrongly and unbecomingly he had acted, and at the same time to tell
him what punishment the Great Queen had ordered to be inflicted
when white married people beat one another. In conformity with this
law he felt himself bound in this instance to make him pay two dollars
as compensation to his wife, whom lie at the same time ordered was to be
allowed to return to her parents. With his chin supported between the
thumb and forefinger of his right hand, the Warrau listened to the
verdict and remained in this pensive attitude long after Mr. King had
finished; Caberalli at last addressed and asked him whether he was
satisfied with it, when he replied "Had the Great Queen known of the
existence of such lazy women as my wife, she would certainly never have
made such a law, but would have allowed the men to beat at least the
lazy ones." On hearing this naive reply I could not keep myself from
laughing, whereat the husband seemed to be surprised. "That it just
fell in with his wishes," he continued, "that she should return to her
parents, but the two dollars he could not pay, as he had not got them."
When, however, Mr. King replied that he must therefore come with him
to Georgetown, he hurried off after a short while to borrow the money in
his own village. I firmly believed he would never return, but I was*
mistaken : in the course of three hours he was again in Mr. King's
presence and put down the compensation money which was now handed
over to his wife.

607. The remaining complaints to be heard also consisted for the
most part of disputes with' Warraus who had bought corials from the
Arawaks, and had not paid for them, etc., until at last Mr. King closed
his Court at sundown. I deeply regretted that I was conversant neither
with the Arawak nor Warrau language, because by CaberallPs transla-
tion a number of personal traits in the naive replies and speeches of
complainant and defendant were certainly lost to me.

608. As we had only engaged the Warraus as far as here, we paid
them off what we owed them with "trade" in the evening so that we

should suffer no delay on this account next morning when we wanted to
leave for Georgetown. The grief-stricken face of Maicerwari betrayed
only too clearly how deeply he felt the pain of parting from the members
of his tribe.

609. Leaving Asacota the following day we returned to our corials
where we found the people whom we had left behind in sound health and
strength. No sooner had Mr. King informed the two rebellious Negroes
that he had made up his mind definitely to leave them behind here, than
they went and begged Caberalli for a place in his corial : he however refus-
ed them with a contemptuous "No," One expectation being accordingly

180 TERRORIZING THE MUTINEERS.

scattered, the hitherto scornful laughter of the despicable fellows soon
began to die away. A second request to the Asacota residents met with
an equally unsatisfactory reply: no one wanted to have anything to do
with the low brutes, and their former defiance now suddenly changed
into a fawning toadyism with which they still hoped to shake Mr. King's
determination: they already seemed to have every confidence of suc-
ceeding because, on our departure from Asacota, this gentleman had
allowed them to accompany us down to the big corial. But when on
arriving there they heard Mr. King give orders to the captain to take out
of the boat the whole of their belongings already in it and put them
ashore, the terror portrayed on both their faces could not have expressed
itself more plainly than it would have done on ours had a thunderbolt
out of the blue struck the ground at our very feet. Like motionless
statues they stood speechless before us for a long while, staring into
vacancy, and were seized with such frantic despair when their bundles
were actually laid down close beside them that, wailing and whining,
they threw themselves before Mr. King, kissed and clung round his feet,
then again wrung their hands, and begged him for the love of God not to
leave them here, nor expose them to death, because the Indians would
certainly let them starve, and without their help they could not find 'their
way to Georgetown. When they saw that Mr. King was not to be turned
from his purpose they came crying to me on their knees, and again begged
for help. As soon as all the crew were settled in the corial, both Negroes
frantically clung on to my arms and prevented me leaving the spot.
Though the common brutes, whose previous conduct had been so insulting
and spiteful, appeared most contemptible to me with all this dog-like
behaviour, I nevertheless finally felt sorry for them and prevailed upon
Mr. King to let them occupy their former places. This exhibition of
earnestness on the part of Mr. King to put his threats into execution
was followed by the most excellent results. No one, from now on,
ventured to disobey our orders or to omit carrying out any of them.

610. After again reaching the Beara and following a stretch of it
we entered the Barabara on its eastern bank: this completely resembled
the Asacota both in respect to breadth as well as in the density of vege-
tation along its edges.

611. Not a single ray of sunshine could pierce the tree tops thickly
interlaced with bush-rope, but wherever the eye turned it met with
flowering orchids that covered the branches of the ancient trees with a
close texture. Amongst these the lovely Ma.Tillaria cristata Lindl. ren-
dered itself conspicuous with its charming flowers, while associated with
it were yet to be seen the Ma. rill-aria Parkerii Hook., M. pumila Hook.,
M. chlora-ntJia Bot. Keg., if. fovcata Lindl., M. gram-inea Lindl., M.
pnrrecta Bot. Reg., and if. nnciata Bot Reg., so that almost all the
species of Ma.Tillaria seemed to be gathered here in one and the same
spot. Pleurothallis and Fernandezia- decorated the trunks and with
their beautifully shaped leaves gave them the appearance of garlanded
columns, while the elegant Oncidium iridifolium with its yellow blossoms
lent a bright touch of colour to the sombre foliage of the undergrowth;
the Zyaopctalinn rostra turn Hook, and Bifrenaria fought with thd

ENCHANTED AREA OF FAIRY ISLANDS. 181

Pleurothallis for first place on the trunks, the elegant Cataactum and
equally pretty-looking Myanthus having to be satisfied with the thread-
like roots of the Aroids hanging down from the boughs. Besides the
families and species mentioned, the glorious Oncidium Lanceanum Lindl.,
with its broad spotted leaves as well as the Coryanthes maculata and
macro utha Hook., with their huge flowers were particularly noticeable.
In between these hung a number of black ants' nests, which the busy
creatures had cemented to the aerial roots swaying from the branches;
the continual rustling and crackling to be heard in the close neighbour-
hood showed how busily the little creatures worked. Woe to us when
an imprudent jolt brought a nest like that into our corial !

612. After following the Barabara for some time we entered the
Kaniwata, the width and riverside vegetation of which corresponded
entirely with that of the Barabara. We had not followed it for long
wh6n the forest, suddenly opening ahead of us, exposed to view a huge
broad stretch of water and swamp which, except for its greater size,
exactly resembled what we had seen at Asacota. The extensive panorama
over the green yet treacherously-boggy meadow and placid swamp
gladdened our eyes all the more, considering that our horizon for the
last three months had been limited by trees, to narrow flats, or by bends
in the river, to short stretches of water.

613. On reaching this very extensive savannah-swamp we im-
mediately made our way into the Itabbo which here forms a direct water-
way with the Morocco, and bears intimate comparison with the
branch-off to the Orinoco, the Casi'quiare. The appearance of this big
lake, made much greater by the high level of the water, was extraordinary,
and presented a charming picture. Thousands upon thousands of
Crinum thrust their dazzling white flowers upon the lightly ruffled
crystal surface while a number of scattered groups of palms and foliage
trees formed delightful fairy islands. Here I also saw the first Mauritia
flexuosa Linn, that lavishly spread their giant fan-shaped fronds over
the silvery waters. The real channel made its way in a tortuous course
through this enchanted area: it sometimes approached either the
border of the forest on the edges of the savannah or one of those lovely
oases, or sometimes cut across the same and made its way more into the
centre of the lake. My eyes rested with real joy upon this delightful scene.

614. The thick network of several species of Nymphaea rendered every
stroke of the paddles difficult and sometimes so hindered our progress,
that we were on several occasions forced to avoid them and make a detour
along the clear portions of the water. Here a number of white flowers of
Rhynchanthera dichotoma DeC., elegant groups of fern, the Blechnum
angnstifolium Willd., Aspidium gonqylodes Kl. (Aspidium gongyloides
Skuhr.) and dark reeds showed up from below. Though the thousands
of large white flowers of the Nymphaea closed at sundown they neverthe-
less still continued to fill the air with their perfume. Mr. King had
fixed the Catholic Mission Station on the Morocco as the terminus of
the clay's journey because he was well acquainted with the .missionary,
Father Cullen*, an Irishman.

* Here and elsewhere, Schomburgk spells the name as Collins but this is an error (Ed1)

182 NEARING SANTA ROSA MISSION.

615. Delighted with the glorious landscape I hurried ahead with my
little corial into a thick forest of palms through which it continued to
make its way, and in speechless astonishment stood up in the bows when,
on the forest suddenly opening afresh, there spread before me a second
stretch of water with densely- wooded hills rising beyond it in every
quarter. From the top of one of these heights, crowned with forest,
very close to where I passed, there peeped the friendly roofs of a settle-
ment which, on account of its many fruit-trees seeming to indicate un-
doubted European cultivation, I took to be the promised Mission Station.
The timid withdrawal of some Indian women who gazed down upon us
in surprise, already began to make my surmise less probable, when a
large shed in which I noticed several chairs, a table with a numerous
collection of glass bottles, beer- and wine-glasses, plates and dishes
again weakened my doubts : but a small elegant house, built in European
style, a little distance apart, to the side of the shed and several open
trunks with articles of clothing that could be seen in the inner room
through the unclosed door, finally banished every consideration, for to
whom could such things belong if not to the Missionary? In this hope
that the day's journey must be at an end I hurried on up to an Indian
woman trembling with fright and reserve, and enquired after the owner :
her depressing reply was that he had died a few days before. Bewailing
our own and the -Missionary's misfortune, I was just about to makrj
myself at home when Mr. King arrived at the landing and called ou>. to
me that I must not stay any longer as the Mission station was still a
considerable way off. Likewise deceived, I thought to myself as I
hurried down the rise to get to Mr. King as quickly as I could and
learn something concerning the previous owner of the property. I now
discovered that this had been the chieftain's village. He had spent his
youth in (Jeorgetown, where he had found the institutions and life of
the whites so pleasant that, when succeeding to the title, he had prided
himself on introducing European manners and customs into his quarters.
In tins he was supported by the preliminary work of his father who,
already making a commencement at it, had planted the fruit trees. The
peculiar custom of the Warraus, to which tribe the settlement belonged,
of using nothing belonging to a deceased person was the reason why
everything lay about undisturbed like this and remained just as it was
found at the time of the man's death. Three years later (II. 865) I
visited the settlement again: a new chief had in the meantime moved into
the house, but the table with the bottles and glasses still stood untouched
in its old place, the whole having been transformed into a densely
populated colony of spiders, and all thickly covered with their cobwebs.

616. After a while we reached the mouth of the Itabbo in the
Morocco which we now followed. Here also a broad border of Nymphaea
stretched along both banks but the current made their junction in the
middle of the stream impossible, and so the innumerable obstacles against
which we had contended all day long suddenly disappeared. We rapidly
made our way down stream but nightfall unfortunately completely
blocked the view of the glorious surroundings. It was already midnight
and the longed-for goal not vet reached. The otherwise rebellious

FATHER CULLEN *s WELCOME. 183

Negroes who had never previously refrained from giving vent to their
bad tempers when prevented pitching camp at sundown were as silent
as the life surrounding us. The lesson they had been taught this
morning was still too fresh in their memory, and their inward exaspera*
tion was under such iirin control, that their outward calm actually
eclipsed Nature's because the latter would be interrupted now and again
by a water-fowl taking to the wing, by the sad melancholy note of the
goat-sucker or of an owl, or by the buzzing of insects swarming around
the closed Nym-phaeae. At last when even my own patience threatened to
give way we heard at a fair distance off the sounds of several flutes and
violins, a sure sign that we were now within the precincts of the Mission :
a few shots on our part ought therefore to let the frolickers know that
there were still some uninvited guests corning to the feast.

617. The first boat stopped at the landing, its repeated gun-fire
notifying the residents that strangers had arrived : a large lantern was
soon seen swaying in our direction and then Mr. King greeted Missionary
Cullen who was carrying it. The latter received us in very friendly
fashion but regretted that we had not come the day before when he had
celebrated some Saint's day with his wards. Midnight was long past:
but so as to give the loudest expression he possibly co«ld to the joy
felt by him at our arrival, he ordered the boy accompanying him to use
lip the whole supply of powder axid fire the small mortar that he
possessed, instructions which the lad right willingly obeyed. Under a
continued cannonade we accordingly climbed the hill on which the
Mission stood and entered our cordial host's quarters which at the same
time served as Parish Church. Besides Fr. Cullen, we met his brother,
a young surgeon only arrived from Ireland a few weeks before just to
visit his brother, as well as a young catechist whom the Bishop had
despatched from Georgetown with letters. Kitchen and cellar were put
nnder contribution afresh, and everything that had not been devoured at
the Saint's feast, was placed at our disposal. The quieter we new arrivals
had whiled away the time before midnight the noisier did we spend the
subsequent hours. A huge bowl of whiskey-punch shortly steamed upon
the table: it was quickly emptied and soon made the company lively.
Irish songs followed Irish speeches, till finally by dawn of day, we
sneaked into our hammocks. On opening my eyes in broad daylight I
got a shock : in front of me was the High Altar with its crucifix rising
above the empty bottles and glasses that had been heaped up around it,
while the steps served as stalls for several goats ! While still upset over
this desecration of the Most Holy, I heard the priest's loud voice
driving the goats off the steps and us out of our hammocks : he had yet
to say Mass during the forenoon, and accordingly everything profane had
to be removed to a distance. Were all these persons in earnest or wrere
they hypocrites? I believed the former, because Cullen saw nothing
scandalous in it, and thought my surprise unaccountable.

618. At the hour appointed some 300 people or so came up for 4heir
devotions, stepped up to Fr. Cullen who now seemed quite another

184 SPANISH INDIANS.

person, kissed his hand, and individually received his blessing. It was
a tine stamp of men who were now rallied before the altar, and their
outward appearance already led us to expect that they stood upon a
higher plane of civilization than the natives around. The women a .id
girls wore print dresses and seemed to be very fond of finery, because I
noticed amongst them many gold chains, ear-trinkets and rings, while
the beautiful shiny black hair was tastefully done up in long plaits
hanging down the back. The men wore white trousers and jackets. Here
and there a half-naked Warrau rendered himself conspicuous among the
circle of devotees, and showed all the more plainly that Indian blood did
not alone flow in the veins of the former. The little choir-boys, whose
white gowns were in marked contrast with their brown faces and black

hair, were thoroughly trained in their office.

619. On conclusion of the Mass the crowd tarried awhile in front of
the Church chatting with one another, when I recognised from the airs
and graces with which the beauties promenaded up and down, that they
were of Spanish blood even before Father Cullen confirmed it.

020. The mission population approximated 500 residents, the off-
spring of Spaniards and Indian women, generally known in the Colony
under the name of ''Spanish Indians." During the Eevolution in
Columbia in 1818 and 1819 these fled to English soil and territory, placed
themselves under the protection of the British flag and settled down on
the scattered hills of the Morocco savannah which they changed into a
flourishing garden of fruits and vegetables. They generally speak
Spanish and stand on a higher level of culture than this desolate waste
might lead one to expect.

021. In the course of the lively conversation carried on outside the
Church we had already heard from the catechist the disquieting news
that not only yellow fever but also black pox had broken out in George-
town to a frightful extent. This information was still further dilated
upon at noon by the arrival of the Post-bolder of the Pomeroon, Mr.
McClintock. Smallpox had attacked the Arawaks of that river where
it had caused considerable loss and spread general terror. It was not
to be wondered at that up to now hardly any of those afflicted by the
dread disease had been saved, considering that, unfamiliar with its
nature, the Indians had applied a most absurd method of treatment, in
which, as the Post-Holder assured us, they held such implicit faith, that
neither remonstrance nor indeed any power on earth could break them
of it : the absolutely unsuitable procedure in question is as it were born
in their flesh and blood from their treatment of fever in general. More
than this, no one could remember smallpox ever having attacked them
befpre.The Government unfortunately did not seem to want to do any-
thing on behalf of the poor people, because up till now it had not even
been considered necessary to send a medical man to the areas affected.
A large number of Indians had already abandoned their settlements and
withdrawn into the interior which naturally gave reason to fear that the
virus of the disease would be spread.

CUSHY ANTS. 185

622. My three Indians, who also must have heard the news, evi-
dently considered prompt night to be the safest way of escaping the
Angei of Destruction, for when 1 looked for them next morning not a trace
of them was to be seen, they not having even asked beforehand for the
money standing to their credit. Even Caberalli's people became trouble-
some and showed no inclination to accompany him further, with the,
result that he had to exert his whole authority and employ all his arts of
persuasion to get them to change their minds.

623. As there was no time yesterday to have a look round the neigh-
bourhood of the settlement, I did so to-day. The Church, as I have
already mentioned, served the Missionary at the same time as residential
quarters: Some Indian houses were situate upon one of the highest rises
from which one enjoyed, from the East and North, a lovely panorama over
the broad savannah with its forested hills which seemed to possess a
peculiar and distinctly restricted vegetation of its own. Besides a
number of bushy Melastomaceae I particularly noticed Posoqueria lonyi-
flvra Aubl. with its innumerable white dependent blossoms and orange
coloured fruits, as well as several Eugeniae and dainty legumes like
Malvaceae, Soloneae, Commelineae, Acanthraceae, and Compositae which
adorned the lovely meadow-carpet with the alternating colours of their
flowers. The large and flourishing coffee-bushes bore sufficient testimony
to the fertility of the soil and it hardly wanted Fr. Cullen's assurance that
the settlers harvested more beans than they required and could therefore
sell a considerable proportion. Were there not upon this hill an
innumerable quantity of ants, and exactly of that kind, Atta ccphalotes
(Cushy-ant of the Colonists), which is particularly noxious to the
cassava plantations, I could have envied this gentleman his little
Paradise. These terrible destroyers of the cassava and plantain fields
have their dwellings underground and increase at such an enormous rate
that their nests resemble huge mounds of thrown-up earth. A cassava or
plantain cultivation in which they are nested soon resembles our
timber areas after the caterpillars have devastated them. In a short
while the ants eat away the whole of the leaves and drag them into their
subterranean dwellings. If a field is once visited and robbed by them,
the destruction of the whole is to be feared. Even when their nests are
situate quarter of an hour distant they will find the plantation and soon
clear all the way up to it one of the most busily occupied paths imagin-
able. However sad it must be for the owner of a cassava field thus
threatened by these pads, they proved extremely interesting for me and
T devoted hours at a time in watching them. My readers might therefore
let me describe in more detail the lives and doings of these intelligent
and industrious creatures in a cassava plantation. The track is about
half a foot wide and somewhat depressed, but whether on account of
the continual communication along it, or for some other reason, I am not
in a position to determine : the rails of a railroad are hardly cleaner and
smoother. With utmost military precision larjre numbers of the insects,
ever on the move, march along it in double column, one towards, the
other from, the field. In the latter column every single individual
carries a piece of leaf the size of a threepenny bit, holding; it erect in its*

186 THE TWO-HEADED SNAKE.

mandibles, for which reason the Colonists also call it Umbrella ant : the
other column is occupied by insects returning to the field. If the interval
between the field and nest is too great, one notices another party coining
to meet the tired carriers half-way and relieving them of their burdens
which they now transport to headquarters, the others returning to the
field. Although thousands are moving up and down not one insect steps
in another's way, not one insect blocks the advance, or checks those
which follow on in busy haste: everything runs as continuously and
smoothly as clockwork. If the path is traced up to the site of destruc-
tion, one finds on it a third contingent consisting of the strongest and
largest individuals that are restlessly engaged in biting the little round
pieces out of the leaves and letting them fall on the ground where they
are picked up by the busy carriers and conveyed away. Nothing,
neither fire nor water, nor any break in the pathway nor any other
obstacle can prevail upon them to give up their work. Should thousands
be killed by extreme violence, not a single corpse will be seen within a
few hours: or directly the danger is over the dead bodies are removed.
If the track be barred by some object which the feeble efforts of the
ants fail to remove, they will soon get round it: if it be destroyed com-
pletely, one finds it re-established within a short wrhile.

624. The ants themselves, especially the winged females, are deemed
a delicacy by the Indians who bite off the abdomen which is eaten raw
or roasted : it has indeed a pleasant sweet taste.

025. In these ant-mounds is usually to be found the Coe villa
anuiilata, the "Two-headed Snake" as the Colonists call it, allied to the
blindwornis (Lurclien) which, according to what the Indians say, is fed
by the ants like the Claviger by the beetles. I noticed for myself during
my subsequent stay in the Morocco that the Coccilia is really a frequent
resident in the nests and Fr. Cullen assured us that wrhen he tried to
destroy the troublesome insects by fires lighted over their mounds or by
digging them out, he had come across numbers of the worm. Now,
whether the powrer of attraction depends upon the animal heat or par-
ticular atmosphere present in these mounds, or whether it is that the
Coccilia, which always lives in the ground, only seeks the loose soil
contained in them for the purpose of digging itself in with greater
facility — the ants at any rate tolerate the worm, and the latter seeks for
the ants and so both live together in brotherly concord. All Fr.
Cullen's attempts to get rid of the nuisance had hitherto proved fruitless
and his earnest wish to lay out a garden close to the church remained
impracticable: for what he planted to-day would to-morrow either dis-
appear without a trace or be completely destroyed. Arsenic seems the
only thing to exterminate them — but what amount would be necessary
to destroy such millions?

626. As we had made up our minds to leave Morocco next morning
the Father expressed a wish to accompany us to Georgetown where he
intended collecting subscriptions to which we gladly contributed our
mite for building a church separate from his private quarters. The last
hours of our stay were once more spent in true Irish fashion: songs

CHANGES IN THE COAST LINE. 187

alternated by speeches, aiid huge bowls of whiskey punch with endless
toasts.

627. After our host had replaced my runaway Indians with some
of his own people, our little flotilla, increased by tiie two boats in which
the Missionary, his brother, and the catechist had taken passage, started
away at daybreak.

0-8. 'me Morocco continues its course for a considerable distance
along the same flat whicli, broken up by rising lulls and forested areas of
larger or smaller size, stretches far to tiie eastward until it runs out into
the immediate coast at the mouth of the Tomeroou and Morocco. During
a subsequent stay in this district I became more intimately acquainted
with the south-eastern limits of this tract.

629. The change of vegetation showed that we were getting nearer
the coast, until finally the Rhizophora, once more met with, vouched for
its being actually reached when the blue-green waters of the Atlantic
Ocean, across which our small corials had to risk a 7-inile voyage to the
Poineroon, shone through the Morocco mouth. The strong breakers did
not allow of our hugging the coast with the frail vessels, but forced us to
follow a course considerably out to sea so as to keep beyond their reach,
as well as that of the large number of mud-banks which usually are found
in plenty along the whole Guiana coast, but more especially here. That
these mud-banks, so dangerous to coastal shipping., constitute the main
nucleus in the ever nascent formation of the Guiana coast, admits of no
doubt, although their origin, not having been ascertained with certainty,
lias been explained along the most varied lines. Their often magically rapid
appearance and disappearance have at all events something very mys-
terious about it. Where the eye, only a few days before, saw but a smooth
surface of water, there suddenly appear more or less soft mud-banks of
varying size which, after a short time, are just as quickly washed away
by the breakers or currents. Often only isolated portions disappear, or
become outwardly altered, but frequently the high washing-tide carries
them bodily on to the immediate coast-line where, out of reach of the
general drift and rise and fall of the waves, they come to form part and
parcel of it, so to speak, through the agencies of the Rhizopliora, Avivcn-
nia and Conocarpus. The whole of the extensive coast-line is thus subject
to continual change, and many a dweller on the coast who- a few years
before could look from his windows out on the sea, now finds himself
separated from it by a thick forest of Rhizophora. The eastern point
of Cape Nassau, that at the same time builds the eastern bank of the
Pomeroon, affords the most convincing proof of this remark. Mr.
McClintock assured me that during his six years' residence this had
lengthened about one-eighth of a mile, whilo the spit on the western
bank, on the other hand, had gained about forty feet. Further confirma-
tion of this continual increase of sea-front is also forthcoming in the
successive growths of coast-vegetation which, according to their different
ages, rise one above the other inland like terraces of an amphitheatre.
The origin of these mud-banks is for the most part attributed to the
detritus which, during the rainy season and heavy floods the rivers roll
into the sea. Even were T to admit that this might have something to

188 PITCH BAY.

do with it, its contribution could only be insignificant amidst the Luge
quantity of alluvium, for the sea is so chock full of mud and mire along
an area at least 150 miles long and in some places 10 miles out, that in
particular spots even the waves themselves resemble thin soft ooze.
Furthermore this generally accepted explanation is absolutely incom-
patible with a piece of coastlaud so small as that of Guiana and especially
all the more so because the interior mountain-country whence the rivers
bear their bright translucent waters to the sea almost always belong to
the class of primitive rocks and accordingly can contribute but little to
the accumulations. Again, were the immediate coast alone to have sup-
plied these huge masses of mud it must have been washed away under the
sea ages ago. That the causes for this phenomenon are to b<> sought not
alone in the lands immediately adjacent to the sea, but also, judging
from their very great magnitude, in some other part of the world or at
least quite elsewhere in America, is further indicated by the species of
mussel and snail which I found not only upon the mud and sand-banks
at the mouth of the Waini but along the whole coast.*

630. As the sea was fairly smooth we fortunately reached without
accident the Pomeroon mouth, where, on the western bank, is Mr.
McClintock's station, which we chose for our night's camp : we were most
heartily welcomed by Mrs. McClintock on our arrival.

631. From the mouth of the Waini the coast stretches in a south-
easterly direction towards the mouth of the Morocco and forms on its
way Pitch Bay which is a mile wide and li mile deep. A kind of pitch
is said to have gushed out of the bottom of this bay in earlier days and
being tossed about on the water for a time to have become as hard as
stone. f If this really was the case formerly, its source must be dried
up now. After being driven out of the Barima the Dutch had built a
Fort just at the mouth of the Morocco : traces of the fascine work and of
the walls can still be seen at dead low water. The Dutch towns of
Middleburg and Vlissingen on the contrary planned a colony on the
Pomeroon in the year 1657. The spit on the western bank has been
guarded by a military post since 1754 to check the frequent escapes of
slaves by water: that on the eastern bank forms Tape "Nassau, which is
encircled with a mndbank stretching over an hour out to sea in a north-
easterly direction.

* The greater part of the material for the mud-flats probably comes from the Amazon
River CE. E. W).

t In connection with this Pitch Bay, the oil expert, Mr. Geo. B. Reynold*, has kindly
drawn my attention to the following extract (translation) from J. J. Hartsinck's "Beschreyving
van Guiana of de Wild Kust in Zuid Amerika" Amsterdam, 1770. pp. 257-8.

" The first rivers which we, coming from the Oronoque, meet in Dutch Guiana, are the
" Creeks or Rivers of Barvma, about one mile in width, wh,ere we formerly have had a Station :
" three miles further, the River Amachara, of the same width, which, together with the above
" mentioned, discharge themselves in the Mouth of the river Oronoque : fully three miles
" in a more Easterly direction, the Creek Mocco Mocco : yet two miles further, the River Waine
" three quarters of a mile in width but shallow.

" The Coast then extends itself in a South-South-Easterly direction and forms, at one and
"a half miles in a more South Easterly direction, a Bay, named the " Bay of Peche" one mile in
" width and one and a half mile in depth, running thus up to the River Moruga, named by us
" Marocke, situated six miles from the Waine.

" In the said Bay a kind of Pitch oozes from the soil, which, floating on the water for some
" time becomes as hard as stone." (Ed.)

THE POMEROON MOSQUITO. 189

632. Our kindly hostess prepared one of the most inviting of dishes
with the tastiest of fish, in the enjoyment of which however, we were
most bitterly interrupted. Mr. King had already warned me at Barima
mouth where we were so frightfully punished by the mosquitoes, to
bear the trouble patiently, because we should find far greater swarms of
them at the mouth of the Pomeroon. At the time I thought this was an
exaggeration but now, sad to say, I had to convince myself of its truth.
On the Pomeroon these myriads of bloodsuckers only appear period-
ically: unfortunately however our arrival coincided with one of such
occasions, a fact that Mrs. McClintock had already deplored when we
got there.

633. Hardly had the sun sunk below the horizon than the frightful
bloodthirsty hordes came and besieged the windows and doors. In spite
of all the openings being closed, as we thought, the room was only too
rapidly filled with the threatening cannibals, and a quiet meal was not
to be thought of. It could be truthfully said of us, ''Thou feedest them
with the bread of tears, and givest them tears to drink in great measure/'
The species was nevertheless quite unknown to me: the Colonists call
them ''Yellow nippers." They have a blue thorax and white terminal joints
on their feet : their sting however is more painful than that of all species
of gnat I had hitherto experienced, possessing in conjunction with it,
as they do, such a long sucking-proboscis that even a Eussian fur would
not be proof against it. Poor Stockle also finding the plague unbearable
came into our room with whining voice, swelled hands and face, and
begged to be allowed to sit in here as the sinful beasts would eat all the
skin off these parts if he remained outside any longer. It was quite
evident beforehand that our sleep would be rendered as distressing as our
dinner. As these bloodsuckers seldom fly higher than 16 feet from the
ground Mrs. McClintock had a little room high up under the roof fitted
as a bedroom. We had, it is true, slung our hammocks in the large room,
and our friendly hostess had brought out everything that had any re-
semblance at all to a mosquito-net, yet in spite of all this we were only
too soon forced to leave our beds again, and run like mad round the
room till morning. The sternest Puritan would have excused even Mr.
King cursing more than once during the course of the night. All crevices
and holes were stopped and the room so filled with steam and smoke that
we could hardly bear it ourselves, but all in vain. To rush out into the
open would be the same thing as jumping out of the frying pan into the
fire, for no sooner was the door opened which was now and again neces-
sary,, owing to the smoke, than whole clouds of mosquitoes streamed in
and like harpies, fell upon us pitiable victims. While we were thus raving
inside the house, the swearing and cursing of our people was audible
outside. The latter suddenly stopped, while the silence that now
succeeded assured us that they must have discovered a certain cure which
really turned out to be the case : they had taken refuge in the boat and
gone out to sea beyond reach of their cannibal followers : even if they did
not obtain comfort for the night they nevertheless secured repose. One
of the coloured men had even climbed into the crow's nest high up on the

190 Mus. MCCLINTOCK'S BIRD COLLECTION.

must that stood in front of the dwelling and served as a signal station.
Our poor catechist was troubled most, because the mosquitoes seemed
to have specially singled out his thin-haired head and large bald spot
for their field of operations. Groaning and cursing, the man of Peace
wound several cloths around his head but all to no purpose, because the
stings of the fiends pierced them, and to save it lie had to stick on his
hat the whole night through. At last the longed-for day broke and we
greeted it with glee — unfortunately, we could not leave this awful
place, for the ebb had just set in and proved so strong that our boathands
would not have been able to pull against it. It was only about 10 o'clock
that the pests disappeared. When our attentive hostess came to bid
us good-morning after a bad night, we expressed surprise at her being
able to stay and pass her life in such a spot as this, but she assured us
that it was not too bad, for these swarms only appeared at certain times,
but as luck would have it, we had come just at one of such most unfor-
tunate occasions : besides that, her little room was closed in so firmly and
tightly, and their beds so carefully protected with two mosquito net*,
that she and her husband we're only rarely driven out. If conditions
such as the present lasted for long, then of course they had to go up the
river and stay with friends until the unpleasant creatures had taken
their departure. To while away the time in this isolated and lonesome
locality Mrs. McClintock had established one of the largest menageries
of birds that I had ever seen. The yard and roof were regularly covered
with glorious red Ibis in all shades of colour, with cranes, sunbirds, Crax,
Penelope, PsopJria, Ton and parrots, that smoothed their beautiful
plumage in the morning sunshine, and after joining the throngs of their
wild companions flying high overhead, would then turn home again after
a while. One of her parrots, a Psittacus pulverulentus won my whole
heart, for not only did it articulate distinctly, but also sang some English
songs and whistled "Rule Britannia" in a masterly fashion. With the
incoming flood we left our pleasant hostess but unpleasant house.

634. The mouth of the Pomeroon is situate 7° 30' lat. N. and 58° 44'
long. W. and might be about three miles wide with a depth of 9 foot of
water at ebb tide and 13 at the flood which somewhat higher up the river
increases to 40 feet. The bed of the river consists of a muddy bottom.
Its sides are flat and covered with the usual coastal vegetation for some
miles up where the plantations commence: except for three plantain
estates however, these are now completely abandoned. Here on the
eastern bank stood formerly Fort New Zealand and the small market-
town of New Middleburg both of which during the war in 166G were
destroyed by the English. After Emancipation a number of Blacks
bought one of the abandoned estates and parcelled it out and so started
the small Negro colony of Middleburg.

635. Several creeks fall into the Pomeroon on the western bank : the
Waca-pau is the most important of these and is occupied by Arawaks.
On the Aikoni is the Colonial Hospital for Lepers which has been shifted
as far as possible from Georgetown to prevent contagion by every means ;

A PITIFUL PICTURE. 191

a doctor and several attendants are in the service of the institution.*
Plantation Caledonia that Mr. King had lixed for the night's camp
showed up on the eastern shore immediately opposite the Aikoni mouth.
We made our way there into the mile-long lined trench bordered with
coconut palm, which led to the residential quarters and betrayed unmis-
takeable Dutch origin. The coffee fields shaded by the mighty
Erythrina Corallodendron Linn, extended on both sides of the
trench. The want of labourers was also apparent here, for the greater
portion of the previously carefully cultivated estate was already over-
grown with weed, the cotfee bushes covered with vines, and the intervals
filled with a real chaos of thorny Mimosae. The plantains which only
with their crowns still overtopped the wanton growth, ottered a similarly
mournful aspect. How many drops of sweat must it have cost to bring
this beautiful estate under cultivation originally! How much labour
must have been spent on the extensive canals 'and trenches ! And now
the whole was but one thick tangle of Mimosa and Cordia.

036. The manager, a friend of Mr. King, welcomed us with the
hospitality for which Guiana colonists are celebrated, but the mosquitoes
on the contrary, received us with corresponding hostility, which they
expressed during the night in equally sanguinary greed. Thanking God
with all our hearts for break of day, we only breathed freely again when
daylight poured into our quarters. At breakfast the manager mentioned
amongst other things the case of a Negro girl on his estate suffering from
a disease which I had heard something of in Georgetown, but had never
had the opportunity of seeing. Our obliging host told me he was ready
to take me to her. On stepping into the miserable room, I ought rather
to say pitiful stable, a naked human form as emaciated as a skeleton
rose from off a sack of straw spread in the corner, stared at us with hollow
deeply-sunken eyes, and then stretched out her bony arms entreating
us for help. An icy shudder ran through me and had I nofc been re-
strained by the respect due to our host, would have run away at first
sight of her. The whole living skeleton was only covered by skin with
many a broad fold in it, through which each rib, each bone, each knuckle,
could be seen : it was the most horrible representative of a human figure
I had ever seen, even elephantiasis and the yaws never having seemed so
awful. With dry husky voice and a pathetic whine she asked for medi-
cine : but help had come too late. To cool her temperature ?<t least, for
the unfortunate creature was burning with inward fever, I brought her
the last of my stock of lemonade powder. The woeful picture of her
sufferings impressed itself on my memory for long, and it was many days
before it disappeared from my mind.f
<§ . — .

* The present Leper Asvluni is situated at Mahaioa, on the East Coast of Demerara. The
Hospital here mentioned on the Waca-pau. Creek is, I think, the old " Yaws" Hospital. (F.(r.R.)

t This description is of some interest, for it is a very accurate picture of an acute
Pulmonary Tuberculosis, though he mentions no cough. I know of no other disease whose
physical signs fit so well into the picture, though it is supposed, and the author himself
affirms, that indigenous Tuberculosis was then unknown in the Colony. The emaciation, the
dry husky voice, the sunken eyes and the inward fever all seem typical of the condition. It
is a pity that we are not given the name by which the disease was known, or some more
tjefiuitely localized symptoms. (F.G.K.)

192 REV. W. H. BRETT'S MISSION.

637. With the commencing flood that on the coastland streams fixes
departure as well as arrival, we left Caledonia and resumed our journey
up the Pomeroon the bed of which continues to make its way between
estates that once were flourishing but now are overgrown with weed.
The vegetation in such places appeared so rank, so thick, and with it
all so uniform in growth, that the whole had really a very regular ap-
pearance and it seemed as if these dark flats which of course were still
far from reaching the height of the virgin forest, had been kept controlled
and in order with hedge-shears. The Cinewyny, a small creek about H
miles above the Aikoni and upon the same bank, falls into the Pomeroon.
Close to its mouth one of the Indians drew my attention to a tree upon
which a family of eight sloths seemed to want to confirm the statement
that this creature never leaves a tree until it has completely stripped it.

638. During the course of the day on the western bank we passed, in
addition to that of the Wadaris, a number of other mouths of unim-
portant tributaries, as well as some small areas of cultivated land about
an acre in extent, which the coloured people or Negroes had planted up,
so as to pass their lives in dolce far niente. The Suriby and Harly-Piak
were the most important affluents on the eastern bank. The once so
celebrated estate ter Hooge, which naturally retained nothing beyond its
name, had been established on the latter. Commencing ebb now forced
us to look for camp which we soon discovered on the farm of a coloured
man, a boat-builder. A large schooner freighted with truli leaves
(Manicaria saccifem) for Georgetown, afforded us the opportunity of
lightening our heavily laden corials and rendering them fit for the voyage
to the Essequibo mouth. As the owner was quite willing to meet our
wishes and take some of our baggage, we freed our boats of it, and then
all the more cheerfully took possession of the farm parlour which the
owner had hospitably given up for our use.

639. The thick border of Caladium arborcsccns enclosing the river-
bed was the surest indication that the Pomeroon banks are still swampy
here : the luxuriant growth of truli palm with its generally 25 to 30 ft.
long, complete leaves four to six feet wide, sufficiently notified it
besides. These leaves are the most suitable and lasting material for
thatching houses and sheds. Formerly they were chiefly used for

O , •/ * t

thatching the boiler-houses and megass-logies and constituted an im-
portant article of trade, a thousand of them at that time costing 50
dollars : however, as these buildings are now covered with shingles from
the timber of the E pern a falcota Aubl. and Pariroa grandiflord Aubl.,
the Wallaba of the Colonists, the price has fallen to 20 dollars. The
Indians who are mainly engaged in cutting them receive from four to
six dollars per thousand, and at this price have to transport them to the
riverside.

640. We resumed our journey next morning and soon reached the
mouth of the some 100 to 120 yards broad Arapiacro on its eastern bank.
'A Mission Station* under the charge of Mr. Brett, the Missionary of

* The Mission was subsequently shifted further up the Pomeroou to Cabacaburi oij its
right bank where it still flourishes. (Ed.)

THE OLD DUTCH DAYS. 193

the Established Church, is situate 011 the point of land formed by the
Arapiacro aiid Pomeroon, which uow caine from the southwest: tiie
pretty little church is visited by the Caribs of the Pomeroou, the Arawaks
of Tapacuiua and Arapiacro, aud the Negroes settled arouud the neigh-
bourhood. Immediately opposite the mission upon the western bank of
the Pomeroon is a charming house surrounded by a still more charming
garden with ornamental plants and orange trees. It bears the name
Poineaco and belongs to a storekeeper, Mr. Pickersgill, who supplies the
Europeans, coloured people, Negroes and Indians living on the river with
everything that the isolation and distance from Georgetown denies the
former, and that the stage of civilisation already won makes desirable
for the latter: at the same time he carries on an extremely lucrative
business in timber and truli leaves. After a short stay with the cultured
trader whom I subsequently learnt to know more intimately and in
wrho«e company as well as in that of his sweet wife I spent many a
pleasant hour, we said good-bye to him and the Pomeroon and made our
way into the Arapiacro. The banks of this tributary are also swampy
and liable to be flooded, but their vegetation, except for the palms, is
very different from that of the main stream. Where at certain spots they
were somewhat raised, we were faced by rapidly decaying elegant resi-
dences up to which some glorious avenues of Cocos and Orcodoxa that
generally ended in thick columns of Oleander, Hibiscus, Gardenia, and
Rose-bushes, were to be seen leading from the waterside. The builders
had left their work behind but they themselves were gone. In the broad
porch where once upon a time the rich Dutch owner, comfortably
smoking his pipe, gazed in satisfaction upon the stream below, along
which his harvest of sugar and coffee was being transported to Mother
Ocean, and upon the flourishing rose-bushes that he had transplanted
from Europe, as well as upon his thriving plantation beds, we now saw
the sly face and dirty figure of a Negro, or the gloomy features of a
coloured man who little worried that the huge posts were threatening to
fall. It was only the flowers of the ornamental trees surrounding the
beautiful ruins that still made a show in the same finery and same play
of colour as they did iu those timets. Many of these buildings had been
Orlean or Arnatto factories, but with the falling price of the article, the
buildings also fell : for a pound of the piffmeut which formerly cost a
dollar can uow be bought for a twelfth of that amount, a bitt.*

641. After following the Arapiacro for a considerable distance to
the south-east, we reached the mouth of the Tapacuma, and made our
way in. The farther we went up the narrower it became, until finally
the trees from both sides clasped arms like brothers and formed a thick
leafy roof. At last an enormous dam with a lock of corresponding size,
barred our further progress, and led us at the same time into the roomy
dwelling of a friendly timber-getter who offered us the long wished-for
camp. As we had got here after dark I was not a little astonished next
morning to see, spread out at my feet, the smooth waters of a huge

* The local term for a fourpenuy piece, or its equivalent value. (Ed.;

194. TAPACUMI LAKE.

lake which iu the far distance was bordered by dense virgin forest. To
guard against the want of water in the dry season which is so prejudicial
to the prosperity of the plantations, and also interrupts communication
between the cane-fields and working-buildings, several estates' owners in
1829 made up their minds to change the savannah behind their lands
where the Tapacuma rises, into a continually filled reservoir, and as it
ran out into fairly high ridges, had no difficulty in carrying out their
intention by means of the darn and lock. The water of the Tapacuma,
thus blocked in its course to the Arapiacro, soon flooded the savannah
and formed a lake, from which broad trenches with sluices lead in all
directions to the estates which are greatly benefited thereby.

642. After dragging our corials over the dam, we made our way
across the broad expanse of water which, except for the old strongly
defined channel of the Tapacuma, was covered with innumerable
Nymphaea that opened their beautiful blossoms with the early morning
sunshine. The Caladium arborcscens formed regular islands in between.
But the brighter the flowery veil over the surface, the sadder seemed the
frondless stems of Mauritia flexuosa and the leafless boughs of giant
foliage trees which were to be noted everywhere about the lake. The
constantly uniform height of the savannah water-level had even
destroyed the giant palms that favour swamps — how much sooner there-
fore must it have killed the mighty foliage trees, the dried branches of
which were thickly dotted with the nests of the ever garrulous Trupial
(Cassicus pei'sicux and C. haemorrJms) . The busy pegging of a number
of wood-peckers at the pithy and decaying thready layers of the Mauritia,
together with the husky screech of several parrots (Psittacus Makawu-
anna Linn.) that had utilised as hatching-boxes the holes picked away
by the former, and regarded us as enemies of their broods, was audible in
the distance. The active life that had developed on the water in the way
of countless flocks of duck, water-fowl, heron, etc., even harmonised with
its fancy dress. The pretty Parra Jacana particularly presented an
entertaining picture: it hurried on its way over the densely intricate
Nymphaea leaves as quick as lightning, and as soon as we were recog-
nised, uttered its peculiar warning note to draw the others' attention to
the danger : the latter then anxiously stretched their lanky necks to spy in
all directions whence the disturbance threatened. If one of these birds be
suddenly surprised it nevertheless still utters its strange note to save
others from a similar fate before seeking to save itself.

643. In the midst of all this busy life we reached, at the end of a
long journey, the lock and lock-house at Plantation Richmond. When
the lock-keeper, le Breton, heard my name, the old boy got so terribly
excited that I really thought he must be suffering from periodic mania :
and yet this extraordinary behaviour was due to quite another reason.
He was an old travelling-companion of my brother's and had accom-
panied him on his expedition to the sources of the Essequibo in 1837.
As the passage through the lock necessitated some delay, le Breton re-
gretted his inability to invite us in the meantime to his little house,
because unfortunately it had been taken possession of by some trouble-
some company which, having made a surprise attack that morning, had

WANDERING ANTS. 195

even driven him, the house-master, out of it. Made inquisitive by the
information, we hastened to have a look and found that an innumerable
host of wandering ants had taken up their quarters there. The whole
room was hung as with a blackish-brown moving cloth while densely-
clustered clumps of already settled individuals formed as it were the
capitals that supported this living drapery. The floor was so thickly
covered with the creatures busily running about that when le Breton
wanted to fetch us a little luncheon out of his larder, two of our people
had to use a broom to open up a trench through the swarms of besiegers.
The original residential site of these curious insects had so far not been
ascertained for certain. For the rest, their presence brings the estates
profit rather than loss because they do not damage the plants but on the
contrary destroy all other insects, even large amphibia, that they come
across. They emerge from the virgin forest in one endless train and
just as suddenly disappear in it again. Their invariable motto is
"Straight ahead." Pressed closely together, these processions move
along and do not allow themselves to be forced aside by any obstacle
that steps in their wray. The two flanks of the column are invariably
escorted by powerful and courageous warriors always ready for a fight,
and every insect, every reptile or smaller mammal that cannot escape
the latter by the most rapid flight, is absolutely doomed to destruction.
The many skeletons lying bleached in the sun indicate to the subsequent
wayfarer the passage of such a host. When a house is reached it is
quickly filled to overflowing with the busily inquisitive creatures, and the
day of reckoning fixed for every spider and other insect that has up to
now enjoyed a comfortable rest in its safe little corner. When evening
sets in they lump themselves up into thick clusters like swarming bees,
which at break of day unloosen, when, Lurrying olf through door and
window, the raiders resume their road to robbery. Though the presence
of these ants was very annoying to honest le Breton and particularly so
to-day, he was nevertheless very glad that his house had been once more
radically cleared of all other troublesome guests and fellow inmates.

644. After getting our corials over the lock we made our way through
the as yet uncultivated portion of the estate until we soon reached the
cane-fields and a glorious avenue of orange trees that stretched along
botli sides of the broad dam. Though overladen indeed with golden-
yellow fruit, they were unfortunately regularly smothered with the
destructive parasite, Loranthus uniflorus Linn.

645. Mr. Pearson, the manager, received us most heartily, and in
spite of our protests, especially mine and Hancock's on account of our
bandaged feet and more than rough clothes, introduced us into the
numerous circle of a brilliant company where we, whom they had long
mourned as dead, were welcomed with general sympathy. Some
imaginative Indian had spread the news particularly along the coast that
the whole expedition had been wiped out by Spaniards, and that Mr.
King had already had his head blown oft' with a cannon-ball.

CHAPTER VI.

Mouth of the Hssequibo — Islands at the Mouth — Bartika Grove —
Mouth of the Mazaruni — Kyk-ovcr-all Inland — Penal (Settlement —
(Juyuni—Carib Settlement Kai-tan — Old Dutch mining claims — Divine
Service at Bartika (Jrove — Arrival of my brother at the Mission — Results
of his journey — Return to Georgetown — Fort Island — Yellow Fever —
Plantation L'Heureuse Aventure — The Police Chase.

646. On the following morning, after getting our corials over the
front dam which protects the estates from encroachments of the sea, and
saying good-bye to Fr. Culleii, his brother and the Catechist, who left
us here to reach Georgetown by the shortest route, we voyaged along the
Arabian Coast to the mouth of the Essequibo. This stretch of land is
undoubtedly the most important and fertile area of the Colony, it alone
including 37 sugar estates and several large farms besides. As the
plantation owners take the greatest possible pride in the height of their
boiler-house chimneys, these stacks rose far above the flourishing natural
wealth of the South, the dense border of coastal vegetation, and lent quite
a peculiar character to the view. The bustle going on in the machinery
sheds was betrayed by the dense black whirling columns of smoke which,
under pressure of the atmosphere spread out over the landscape in clack
streaks and became ever lighter and lighter in the distance until they
were finally blurred in the haze. What increased the charm of the
picture still more was the sunset casting its gilded rays over the lightly
ruffled ocean and wealth of panorama. The favourable impression of
the sea view was further heightened by the mighty Essequibo, for though
the mouth of this river was yet several miles away, one could nevertheless
recognise from now onwards the huge waves of the stream rolling on into
the sea, and without mingling with its .waters, stretch away out into the
Atlantic like a dirty streak. The picture became even more vivid and
impressive when the flood-tide set in and two mighty volumes of water
put their uncontrolled forces to a test that resulted in indescribably
violent commotion. The proud stream however proved its mettle because
the penetrating energy of the flood was soon overpowered, the foam-
belaboured waves and eddying circles abated, and the arrogant streak of
victorious current reappeared before our gaze, to lose itself again in the
far distance on the horizon. This sublime sight was not even without
effect on the Negroes who were otherwise so insensible to the beauties of
Nature, and called from them a general expression of astonishment.

647. Midnight again drew near without our having reached
Plantation Aurora, the place fixed for camp, and our T»laeks were once
more about to express signs of dissatisfaction when Mr. King quite
casually remarked that they must have forgotten there was a prison close
by wrhere he would have every man jack of them locked up for a few
days.* Any prospective disturbance of the peace had been thus just

* The prison referred to is at Capoey but now devoted to other purposes, Court House,
Police-barracks etc. (Ed.)

UNEXPLAINED EXPLOSIONS. 197

nipped in the bud, when a loud barking indicated that we had reached
our destination. The manager and hid people were already slumbering
so soundly that it was only with the assistance of the watchman thai
we succeeded in waking tiiern. Although he was a complete stranger,
Mr. King's friend having given up the management some weeks before,
he welcomed us just as heartily as anyone could possibly have done, and
drove Mr. and Mrs. cook out of bed to prepare supper tor us. Without
noticing it in the darkness we had entered the Essequibo mouth just as
ignorantly as we had passed the Capouye \v hich falls into it on its western
bank. This latter river forms part of an irrigation scheme similar to
that of the Tapacuma where, six miles inland in the neighbourhood of
these former savannahs, it spreads itself out into an immense lake, sur-
rounded by forest. It is about 1£ miles in circumference, and is stated
to be unfathomable : among the Colonists and Indians living in the neigh-
bourhood there is a saying that a terrible noise similar to that of a
cannonade used formerly to be heard within it from time to time.*

648. Next morning quickly took us into the channel between Tiger
Island and the western bank, along which we now continued our journey
up the Essequibo as far as Plantation Sophienburg situate at the
southern spit of the Island. We stopped some time here at a store-
keeper's to purchase the provisions that I was anxious to despatch up the
Cuyuni to my brother. After concluding the business and saying good-
bye to Mr. King who, with the black crew, Caberalli and Maicerwari
proposed travelling from here to Georgetown, I continued my way up
stream in company with Hancock, Stockle, Florenz and three coloured
men. As Wakenaam lay exactly opposite I could not refrain from paying
the kind-hearted proprietress of Zeelandia a hurried surprise visit. A
strong north wind suddenly arising proved unfavourable for the trip and
almost made me regret my purpose, for the waves rolled high enough to
have done credit to the Bay of Biscay : however, we fortunately reached
the estate, but were not to see either Mr. or Mrs. Arindell who were still
in Georgetown. Our white-haired captain soon made a sail out of an old
piece of sail-cloth that the manager readily sold us. On the morning
following, what with a good wind and the commencing flood, we shot
over the angry waves with the speed of an arrow and soon passed the
eastern point of Parrot Island and a whole row of other ones, the
flourishing vegetation of which made a fine sight. I recognised the
major portion of von Meyer's Flora Essequiboensis, amongst which the
Vncliysia. the Cassia enveloped in yellow flowers, and the Jacarandn,
ofttimes leafless but dotted over with blue blossoms, were especially
conspicuous: owing to the alternating mixture of colour and the way

* This is onite probably fonnded'on fnct as there is a little creek in the vicinity of Wnini
month and a tribntarv to thnt river Called Thunder Creek from the fact that lond explosions
nre h^ord in the neighbourhood. I have heard them myself on Fevernl occasions while survey-
ing oil concessions. Mr. Krnest Farnum a couple of veara ago had the vicinity examined in
the hone of locating the supposed pitch volcano, the nrobable cause of the noise, but did not
succeed. Again a couple of vears ago when at Arnau Mouth in the upper Aruka I heard a
terrific report in a northerly direction and when that tvening T arrived at the Aruka Estate
tho mannger Mr. P. C. Pierre told mo the explosion occurred in the vicinity of the JBarabina
Hill right behind the plantation. (V.R.)

198 A CASE OF BUY BELLY-ACHE.

in which these trees were interlaced with thousands upon thousands of
bush-rope and creeper, the scenery proved most beautiful.

649. We had arranged to get to-day as far as the so-called Cliff,
the first spot on the western bank where granite rock is to be seen.
There is a fairly large farm in its immediate vicinity. The day was
already drawing to a close as we approached when the silence was
suddenly broken by the most heartrending cries of pain in a woman's
voice, proceeding from the owner's residence. Upset by the sound, we
tied our corial to the stelling and, hurrying up, met the proprietor who,
with a sad face, quietly led us into a pleasant room on the upper storey.
We found a young girl here writhing in strong convulsions and uttering
those cries of distress which had made us shudder even at a distance.
Her night-dress as well as the wThite coverlet of the bed were deeply
stained with blood. Dismayed and grievously shocked, Hancock and I
stood several minutes speechless in front of the couch till the voice of our
host wakened us from our stupor. "Look at my dear sister," he told us,
"she only came from Holland a few weeks ago to cheer up my lonesome
existence in this fail away country, and now she must leave me for ever !"
The poor 18-year old young woman had been attacked the day before with
a virulent complaint which the Colonists call "dry belly-ache," an ex-
tremely dangerous inflammation of the bowels, to which almost all who
are afflicted fall a sacrifice.* The setting sun that shed its parting rays
ever the clean bed covered with spots of blood, and upon the withered
cheeks of the pretty young face, as well as over the trembling and
sympathetic features of an aged half-naked Negress who was trying to
restrain and encourage the patient, shewed in its mellow light such
fearful contrasts as to make us feel most terribly horrified. Believing
it to be a fever on account of the terribly raised temperature, the discon-
solate brother had hoped to relieve the sufferer by opening a vein, but
the dressings, not being properly secured, had become unloosened and the
wound was bleeding afresh. Hancock, who had formerly studied
medicine, lost no time in approaching the bedside and with a bandage
skilfully applied, succeeded in stopping the severe hemorrhage. The
increased noise in the room may have caused the sick woman to suspect
the arrival of strangers: at any rate she suddenly opened her hitherto
closed eyelids and, without a movement on her pale lips, turned her
large black eyes upon us for a long while in surprise, when her brother,
who probably surmised in Hancock's dexterous manipulations the
presence of a doctor, bent over and tried to comfort her with the
assurance that help was now at hand. The calm look of hope with
which she regarded Hancock and her soft expression of gratitude .were
suddenly interrupted again with the most terrible cramps and piercing
cries of agony. We could bear this shocking scene no longer but, deeply
affected, left the chamber of suffering and made our way down again to

* This " drv bellv-ache " was most likeTy Pernicious Malaria. Even now these cases are
seen occasionally in the Colonial Hospital, running n rapid and acute course, with chiefly
intestinal symutoms. It may, of course, have been Cholera, which appeared in Gniana in
1832-33, though one would have exnected so well-informed a writer to be acquainted with
this disease. The "cramps" are very suggestive. (F.G.Ifc.)

A SUBSTITUTE FOR MILK. 199

the door, past which soft-hearted Stockle hurried with eyes bathed in
tears. Everything that our medicine-chest contained in the way of
anti-spasmodics was immediately handed over to the Negress who had
followed us, and her brother brought us news shortly after that the
distressed patient had fallen asleep. He had already sent a messenger
yesterday to Wakenaam for the doctor, but up till now the latter had not
put in an appearance. Salutary sleep was unfortunately soon to be
denied her, and the cries of pain echoing afresh throughout the silent
house were continued with but few interruptions throughout the whole of
the night. When next morning we stepped up into her bedroom we
thought we already recognised the presence of that surest cure for all
our sufferings, the Messenger of Peace. As it was the eastern bank of
the river that we followed on the return journey, I was unfortunately
never able to learn what ultimately happened to the patient.

650. Very deeply affected, it was in silence that we continued on

our journey up the glorious Essequibo along which we were wafted with

the fresh early morning breeze. Now that the river was free of islands

its remote eastern shore glittered at us occasionally through the

gradually unfolding clouds of haze like a bluish band fringing the rays

of sunrise that came into view with its golden edge. Sometimes we neared

the densely forested western bank where thousands upon thousands of

feathered residents chimed their happy voices unmindful of our sorrow :

sometimes we drew away and returned to- the middle of the stream. A

dear little cottage surrounded by countless cacao trees with their yellow

fruit and small dainty blossoms conspicuous amidst the pretty foliage

seductively invited us in the evening to sling our hammocks under its roof

which its owner, a coloured man, readily agreed to. While taking our

black coffee in the morning our host asked us to wait a while because

although not possessing goats or cows he knew where to get some milk.

He soon returned with a basketful of beautiful ripe Sawari nuts, the

fruit of the Pekea tuberculosa Aubl. (Caryocar tomentosum Willd.),

broke the kernels out of their shells, pounded them in a vessel and

poured the expressed fatty white juice into the dark brown liquid which

now bore comparison with the morning coffee of Europeans mixed with

the fattest of cream. The sensible fellow did not teach us the little

piece of ma^ic in vain, because this vegetable milk has often coloured our

coffee since, and made it tasty.

651. The awakened screech, after sunrise, of the streams of parrots
flying away over the stream also warned us that it was time to get away
if we still wanted to reach Bartika Grove before sunset. We only suc-
ceeded in doing so after dark when the friendly Bernau put at our disposal
si pretty empty house situate close to a steep descent on the nine to ten
foot high bank. Two mornings later I was able to hand over a corial
plentifully laden with provisions to our old captain to take up the
Cuyuni and look out for the Expedition. Circumstances also rendered
it possible for me to apply regular and suitable treatment to my feet, the
condition of which put every prospective excursion out of the question. Its
salutary effects soon rendered themselves apparent and when the con-
tinuous rain did not keep us back I was enabled to make small daily

200 FORT KYK-OVER-ALL.

trips inland and upstream in company with Hancock, Stockle, and
Florenz : it was usually then that I particularly enriched my botanical
collections and filled any gaps caused by the rain and moisture.

652. Although Meyer in his Flora Essequibocnsis alone describes 366
genera and species, and Aublet enumerates a considerable number of
others, I nevertheless discovered a quantity of plants that were
described neither by the one nor the other. The richer however my
botanical harvest, the poorer did the zoological prove to be : even all the
oft-repeated efforts to increase my ichthyological collection were blocked
by the high level of the water when no other fish than the Crcnicichla
lugubris Heckel., can be enticed to take a bait. On returning out of
humour of an evening from my fruitless fishing, I would try and forget
my annoyance in the really beautiful enchanting landscape over the wide
stretch of the Essequibo which, with its slow almost imperceptible cur-
rent, was rolling along to the ocean. If the gradual advance of the stream
were not noticeable, by the floating trees uprooted in the upper
reaches through the raging force of its current, anyone would take this
huge mass of water for a tranquil lake. Even the momentary stir and
blocking of the waters when the flood sets in would pass unnoticed were it
not that the tongue of land on which Rartika Grove is situate had been so
washed away already that Mr. Bernau had been forced to put up a fascine
dam. At high flood the rise generally measures seven to eight feet, at
the spring on the other hand, usually ten to twelve, when the water will
overflow the banks in many places. I cannot explain the tempestuous
violence with which the EssequilH) rushes into the sea. Bartika Grove
is situate in 6° 24' 24" lat. N. and 58° 37' 44" long. W.

053. From the observations made directly after our arrival in
connexion with the temperature of the water as compared with that of
the air, it was found that the former at 6 a.m. was usually from 8 to 10
degrees wanner than the latter, at 2 p.m. on the contrary the air was 1 to
2 degrees warmer than the wrater, while at 6 p.m. the water was again
2 to 3 degrees higher than the air. This considerable difference between
the two temperatures at sunrise is the reason why the thick masses of
mist that develop every morning on the surface of the water are generally
dispelled only several hours later when the increasing warmth of the
sun has re-established the balance in temperature. All the data subse-
quently obtained by us strictly corresponded with these results.

054. After having explored the immediate neighbourhood as far as
we could, we turned the bow of our corial towards Kyk-over-all, the
small island at the Mazaruni mouth. Here are to be found the ruins of
a small Fort from which one can enjoy an unrestricted view over the
streams of three rivers, the Essequibo, Cuyuni, and Mazaruni, and hence
its name. The original Fort, built of hewn stone, which was already in
ruins on the arrival of the Dutch, was built by the Portuguese as may be
seen from their coat of -arms over the entrance.

655. A short time after the Hollanders had been driven from the
Essequibo by the Spaniards with the assistance of the Indians, in 1596, a
certain Jost van der Hooge returned to found the colony of Nova
Zeelandia, Already fully established in 1613 it was protected by a

H.M. PENAL SETTLEMENT. 201

small Fort which the new promoter met there and subsequently received
Hie name of Kyk-over-all. In 1704 the defence works were partly de-
molished and the sugar-mill of Plantation Duinenburg built out of its
hewn stem s, while some years later, in 17(58, they had to supply material
for the mill at Plantation Luiksbergen : nevertheless it was not razed
to the ground. As 1 was once again so close to Cartabo Point I could
not refrain from continuing my trip and paying it a visit when 1 was
immediately recognised by the residents and given a hearty welcome: the
women enquired after husbands or sons, about whom I could naturally
give them no further information than that it was to be hoped they would
soon be safely coming down the Cuyuni with my brother.

656. While paddling one day with a small coloured boy along
Naikuripa Island, which lies immediately opposite liartika Grove,
I heard the piping note of a sloth which the sharp eyes of my young
and smart companion soon discovered in the top of a tree. Without
waiting for my instructions the clever climber clambered up and
reached the animal : he vainly tried to loosen its hold, and to gain posses-
sion of the creature, had to lop it off the tree with a hatchet, It was a
female with its young that was clinging tightly on to her back. Their
appearance on the island doubtless indicated that they not only under-
take long journeys, but that they must also be expert swimmers, for
otherwise the mother would never ha.ve reached the island lying tolerably
far from the bank. My young friend told me that he had found plenty
of sloths on the islands of the Essequibo. After killing both, which I
only succeeded in doino: after a great deal of trouble, T stuck them into
a cask of spirits to be forwarded to Berlin for making into skeletons.

657. An excursion to Kai-tan, a Carib settlement on the Cuyuni, was
at last to satisfy my desire of becoming acquainted with this race, so
feared in earlier times, and the accounts of whose brutality had made
me shudder while still a boy. At the Cuyuni mouth is to be seen the
former residence of the Postholder which now, deserted and abandoned,
looked sadly down upon us from its 50ft. high granite rock. The hope
of finding from there an unrestricted panorama over the Essequibo,
Mazaruni, and Cuyuni induced me to climb the dismal and formidable
rocky massif of the bank, when the reality that presented itself far
surpassed my expectations. The station had been removed to Ampa a
long while before and people were just then engaged in completely
demolishing the house that was fast going to ruin, and establishing in
its place a penal institution for the convicts of the Colony. The system
of punishment hitherto in vogue had turned out to be of so little efficacy
especially in the case of Negroes, and at the same time had proved so
expensive that the Government had decided upon another procedure
which, it was to be hoped, would remedy both evils. The immense
quantity of granite offered an inexhaustible field for convict labour, for
the prisoners could obtain from it the stone required for street-paving,
house-building, etc., in Georgetown, and at the same time cultivate the
broad unused stretches of land for their support. The hopes that were
set upon the change have been completely fulfilled : the sentence of a pun-
ishment of several months or weeks in the Penal Establishment at Maza-

202 A BULWARK AGAINST ILLICIT FREEDOM.

runi fills every Negro with terror because he is made to work there. The
Pennsylvania system would at all events in the case of the lazy Negro
drag after it none of the dismal consequences which it has undeniably
entailed in North America but, as is generally the case, would rather miss
than attain the special object of the punishment.

658. The Cuyuni at its mouth consists of fairly high clay banks
which are here and there interrupted by masses of granite between
which the muddy water of the current slowly makes its way. The
Carib settlement soon rose ahead of us, the houses corresponding almost
entirely in their construction with those of the other tribes whom we had
hitherto visited. But the occupants seen here differed essentially in
their whole outward appearance from the latter, not only in the darker
colour of their skins, but also in their more thick-set and robust build of
body and coarse hardly prepossessing features. The few men and
women whom I found present were indeed not tattooed but on the other
hand painted out of all proportion with Rucu and the dark blue juice
of Genipa americana, in the most varied angular patterns which par-
ticularly appeared most numerous on the legs. In the pierced ear-lobes
they wore pieces of bambu or jaguar teeth : in the pierced under-lip and
at both corners of the mouth, several needles which, stuck from inside
out, at the same time for the women formed a keen bulwark against any
illicit freedom. Instead of the apron belts being made out of beads or
tree bark, the women wore a covering of "salempores^ reaching down
to the middle of the thigh, the shape of which much resembled our
bathing pants. To give unnatural girth to the calves, which amongst
them is regarded as the greatest female perfection, 3-inch wide cotton
bands are tied on the girls already in their earliest childhood both im-
mediately below the knee as well as above the ankle. The girl wears
these fetters unaltered until she reaches full development. By this
means the muscular growth becomes limited beneath the spaces that are
tied, while the calves swell to an ungainly mass of muscle. The
women wore their hair cut short immediately over the forehead while
that of the rest of the head fell, disordered and tangled, over the
shoulders, or in some cases was tied up in a bunch on top of the head. As
soon as I entered the village it was evident that their whole character
corresponded just as little with that of the tribes already known to me.
The men were at the time busy finishing some paddles and the women
making earthenware. After scarcely vouchsafing us a haughty almost con.
temptuous look, they turned their sulky eyes back on their work, which
they silently resumed without taking any further notice of us. We had
been standing alongside them for some while without getting a syllable
in reply to our questions when Hancock hit upon an expedient that
formed the most exquisite mastertjkey for opening the closed doors of
their mouths. Without bothering further about them he turned round
specially to Stockle, and asked him to fetch the spirit-flask, as he had a
powerful thirst on, and wanted to pour some of its contents into the
water as was generally advised by doctors in general when drinking
river-water. Hardly had the word "brandy" reached the ears of the
company apparently absorbed in their work, than as if by magic all

POTTERY MANUFACTURE. 203

were raised, all tongues were loosened, and all eyes beamed friendship,
while heart and hand showed themselves prepared for any service. i
admit that I was not very much taken with this want of character, this
sudden change from their previous offensive and arrogant behaviour: it
formed too glaring a contrast with the complaisant friendliness and
gentleness of the remaining tribes with whom I at any rate might have
been too favourably impressed. What had disgusted me about them had
spread fright and terror among the aboriginal natives from time im-
memorial. The Caribs formerly undertook frequent predatory expedi-
tions into the interior of the country and sold the resulting prisoners as
slaves to the Dutch or English. The most beautiful of the women and
girls captured by them on these raids they retained for themselves and
thus one might clearly explain the observation of earlier travellers that
the women of the Caribs spoke a language quite different from that of
the men. Not only amongst themselves but also amongst remaining
tribes there has been maintained a tradition that the Caribs wandered
into Guiana and that their ancestors inhabited the Islands. As I
subsequently spent a long time with them, and became better acquainted
with their manners and customs, I propose postponing any further
accounts until the description of my stay. With regard to accentuation,
as well as in the whole structure of the language, I found a remarkable
correspondence, even in particular words, with that of the Waikas or
Akawais who in general appear to be a branch tribe of theirs.

659. The clay pots which we saw the women busily employed
manufacturing constitute one of their best articles of trade. Although
suitable clay is to be found in almost all the small streams of the coastal
region, certain localities are specially notable for the excellence of tVeir
material. To such as these belongs the base of a small hill on the left
bank of the Cuyuni mouth to which Indians come from distances far
apart to obtain their requirements. A religious superstition is the
cause of numerous parties assembling here to collect it : the Indians
firmly believe that it is only during the first night of commencing full
moon when thov dare carry on the work, and accordingly, as Mr. Bemau
maintained, whole crowds congregate there on that particular evening
and return home at break of day with a big supply. The Indians are
absolutely convinced that the pots made from clay obtained at any other
time not only possess the defecr of readily breaking, but also bring a
number of diseases to those who eat out of them. In the manufacture
of the ware the Caribs do not, vary from the procedure of other tribes.
After the clay has been kneaded with hands and feet until such time as
no more little particles are to be seen in the pliant mass, they first of all
construct the base of the vessel, and then with the flattened hands prepare
rolls of clay as thick as one's finger: they Join these to one another both
by pressing them over with a little piece of wood that is always kept wet,
as well as bv innninulatinjr them. Bv squeezing together, or bv spreading
out the mass, they know how to give the most varied shapes to the vessel.
When the clay has lost .part of its moisture, they polish the outside with
a smooth stone or a shell and sun-dry the article for some time. To bake
the ware they dig holes in the ground, put the pots in them, sur/ound

204 DID DUTCH MINING CLAIMS.

the same with pyramids of dried timber, light them, and keep the fires
burning until the process is completed: they know when this stage is
reached by the sound of the note which such a pot gives when tapped with
a small piece of wood. The painting of this ware, which is only carried
out after the baking, is done either with a piece of wood or without
further help than the finger. They are the only tribe whose painting-
shows bent and circularly curved lines besides the straight ones. The
soot from pots already used, which they scrape off and mix with the
gummy;-like slimy juice found between the bast and sap wood of the Inga,
supplies them with the black paint : the Bixa Orellana or Bignonia chica
supplies them with the red. I have seen vessels which held 'certainly
from 30 to 40 gallons and on account of their fragile nature, were tightly
wound with fibre.

660. Mr. Bernau having informed me that several old claims, the
scanty remains of earlier mining, were to be found somewhat to the
westward of Kai-tan, I went to have a look at them, and discovered,
besides the workings, a number of pits fallen in and overgrown with
underwood. The old legend about the mountains of Guiana rich with
gold and silver had induced the Dutch in 1721 to allow everybody to dig
for the precious metals anywhere within the country. As this muddling
way of mining produced no favourable result, and not wishing to sacrifice
their illusory hopes that Guiana was hiding within herself the same
wealth of desired metal as the western portion of South America, they
got a mining expert by the name of Hillebrand, together wTith several
miners to come out from Europe so as to unearth the precious substance
with the assistance of an experienced man. But the wrorkmanlike
methods of mining still proved no more successful than did the previous
empirical ones. The labourers succuml>ed to the influence of the climate
before they could even reach their destination : the work had to be left
undone and has never been resumed. The stone that lay around in the
immediate neighbourhood of the claims consisted partly of weathered
granite, and partly of gneiss with plenty of mica and horn-blende as is
ordinarily met with on its transition stage to trap-stone. I wondered
at seeing several huge quartz boulders which nevertheless could not have
had their mother rock here, but were probably derived from a lode in the
Cuyuni.

661. I found a useful and diligent troop of helpers in the boys of the
Mission station who enriched my collections with many an insect caught
during their trips in the forest, to which they hurried with their minia-
ture bows and arrows at the commencement of every leisure hour. When
the lonsred-for time arrived the greatest activity was displayed in the
pretty little settlement. Shouting and jumping along, one lot of strong,
healthy lads hastened to the forest, another on the contrary trooped
down to the bank of the Essequibo and launched their tiny home-made
schooners or bark canoes for which they had taken the vessels coming
up stream as models, while yet another took their way to the field with
hoe and spade to clean the yams, etc., from weeds or to loosen the soil
until the blare of a trumnet called them back to the school-room. As
the Mission boasted no clock their trumpet at the same time announced

B/EV. J. H. EERNAU'S MISSION. 205

the times for prayers ami called the people to Sunday services, which
always caused a certain aniouni of excitement in tne peaceful well-
reguiated .Mission and lent it an unusually gay appearance. Already
by sunrise a numuer of corials and boats coulu be seen on the Essequibo
and Mazaruni flurrying to the Mission with clean, Clothed coloured folk,
JNegroes, and neighbouring Arawaks, and soon reaching the landing-stage,
brought the devout worshippers to church. Subdued and still, the
attentive congregation sat and listened in the hall of prayer to the
simple childlike sermon of their brave shepherd. I shall never forget
how deeply impressed 1 was with the singing of the Mission community,
particularly of the boys and girls, which was as soft as it was inspiring
and spirited. Mr. Bernau took the afternoon service in the Arawak
language. Sunday being Life's flower-stage, Saturday already disclosed
the buds : for in the morning many of the boys, many of the girls, were
to see their parents, their brothers and sisters, or relatives. Sunrise had
not yet proclaimed the Sabbath inorn before the children, filled with a
presentiment of delight at seeing their own people again, searched the
smooth waters in the direction whence those they longed for had to come,
and if a corial came into view, their sharp eyes would recognise in the
remote distance those whom they expected. The Indians have been
repeatedly reproached for loveless sentiments and want of sympathy
towards their children: yet the conceited look of the father and inward
joy of the mother whose gaze complacently rested upon the daintily
dressed boy or girl expressed the surest signs of paternal pride and purest
maternal love. The parents never forgot to bring some titbit or other
for their own pets, and the well-filled basket would be readily opened
and faithfully shared so as to cheer the sad and depressed looks of the
poor orphans who had no father or mother to care for them. If the
parents of children staying at the Mission brought a younger brother or
sister with them, the big black eyes of the naked little savage would
look covetously upon its brother's or other pupil's clean clothes, and
gaze in wonder upon all the neat dwellings, yet one could plainly read
in its looks what it felt in its heart : "It's all very nice here — but it is
far nicer in our forests : now and never would I change with you !" I
managed to watch the young Mission pupils all day long and noted with
what childish pride they showed their little brothers and sisters all the
sights of the Institution and, leading them into the dormitory and
schoolroom, tried to give explanations for everything. The coloured
people and Negroes left the Station directly service was over: many
of the Indians followed them only next morning.

662. After Hancock and I had settled clown to rest one evening we
were aroused from sleep by a loud knocking at the door, and thero stood
Mr. Glascott who we naturally thought was about to announce my
brother's arrival — but we were mistaken. After our leaving the latter
with his division his captain had been suddenly taken seriously ill and
as the Indians maintained that onwards from Mariari where the overland
trip was to commence, the Expedition would be beset with a number of
difficulties, it was decided that Mr. Glascott, one of the worst walkers of
the party, the sick captain, and the unnecessary chronometers that might

206 ACROSS PROM THE BARIMA TO THE BARAMA.

very easily get damaged on the land journey, be sent back to Georgetown
along the same route that we had come. To keep us company while
waiting for the Expedition Mr. Glascott had just come from town, but
unfortunately brought very unpleasant news. Yellow fever and small-
pox were still raging to a frightful extent, the former amongst the 52nd
Kegiment that had only arrived a short while before, the latter especially
among the coloured people and Negroes.

663. I was beginning to get seriously anxious over the long absence
of those whom we were waiting, when on the 26th J uly our small mortal-
announced their coining, soon after which we welcomed them at the
stelling.

6o4. After leaving Manari on the 8th July, they had travelled up the
Bariuia in company with our Warraus and Waikas and had then left it to
look out for a path that led to the Cuyuni. My brother and his com-
panions had pushed their way on over hills 30 and 60 feet high and
through intervening swampy valleys where the water often reached up
to their waists when they finally crossed the Caruawa which seemed to
be only a small stream here, and soon after struck upon a settlement of
Waikas. On the second morning out, my brother was unfortunately
forced to admit that his height-barometer had suffered considerably
already on this short overland journey and was unsuitable for making
any further observations.

665. The cleanliness found in Paripu, the Waika settlement, and
the neat and natty picture exhibited in all the villagers' fields supplied
unmistakeable evidence that it was ruled by a man who must have speiic
a long time in Georgetown and there got imbued with a taste for
European manners and customs: unfortunately, he and the largest
portion of the residents were away. After passing a second settlement
in the course of the afternoon they reached the valley of the Parapimoi,
the overflowing floodi-waters of which had transformed the whole plain
into a lake that had to be waded across. With the Carib settlement of
Cariacu they got by evening to the Baraina which was some 60 yards wide
and falls into the Waini about 40 miles away. Its banks are occupied
by Waikas, Caribs and Warraus who together might form a population
of 500 individuals. As several of the men hitherto accompanying him
expressed their unwillingness to proceed farther, my brother picked
some Caribs and Waikas from the neighbourhood to fill the gap. Owing
to the want of another boat they had to content themselves with wood-
skins for the voyage that was to start from here. The Indians manufac-
ture these light and frail vessels just from the bark of thick trees : I only
learnt subsequently the special procedure adopted in their making.
Owing to their light material they can be carried on the head to any
spot along the bank where the river-bed opposes a passage until such
time as the stream is once more clear and allows them to resume their
journey. The upper portions of the river can almost always only be
navigated by these craft.

666. Taking his departure from Cariacu on the Hth July, my
brother, at a spot above the mouth of the Abocotte, met with the first
rocks to appear in the Barama and soon arrived at the mouths of the
Erawanta and Mazuwini. On the afternoon of the 13th July they

FBOM THE BAHAMA TO THE GUY UNI. 207

reached the first of the Baraina rapids arising from several granite dains
that had pushed their way across its bed. Although the Waika settle-
ment Cadui, which was reached on the same day, lay 12 miles below the
great Dowocaima Fall, they nevertheless during the night distinctly
heard the thundering rush of its waters. My brother having again hired
some Indians to accompany him to the Cuyuni, they made their way to
the Great Fall that had already notified itself in the far distance by
several rapids. They landed at Wayaruima Island and were forced to
carry baggage and boats more than two miles overland. The total drop
of the Barama from Cadui to the bottom of Dowocaima amounted to
120 feet. (Shortly before the three uppermost falls the river becomes
narrowed to 80 feet through the projecting masses of gneiss and then
rushes down with frightful force in three drops, each of a perpendicular
height of from 35 to 40 feet. The lay of the beds of gneiss runs S. 33° W.
!Xext day they passed Massiwindui Rapids as well as others of less im-
portance, and pitched camp in the evening at the foot of Aunarna Falls
where the path branched off to the Cuyuni. The river Aunama joins the
Barama immediately above the Falls: its mouth is in 7° 13' lat. N.
The Barama is said to take its rise in the same paiallel of latitude as the
Barima and Amacura, in fact, in the' savannah extending to the north-
ward from the Ekruyeku Range.

667. On the 16th July they commenced their land journey afresh,
traversed several liills of from 100 to 150 feet in height and then followed
the valley through which the Aunama conies flowing into the Barama.
After a short rest in some of the Indians' houses deserted by their
occupants they resumed their way along the Aunama and by evening
made the Carib village of the same name situate 7° 9' lat. N. Upon and
almost throughout the ridge of hills stretching from N. by W. towards
S . by E . which they had traversed during the day they found big rows
of erratic granite boulders which in general ran NW. by .W. On the follow-
ing morning they proceeded in the direction hitherto followed towards
,WSW., crossed the Aunama during the forenoon, and after traversing a
small range of hills that extended S. by W. hit the westerly arm of the
Aunama on the farther side of which runs the watershed between the
Cuyuni and Barama, for, from this point onwards all the waters
stream no longer eastward to the Barama and Waini but southward to
the Cuyuni and Essequibo. From this 520 ft. high range of hills the
ground sloped gently down towards the Cuyuni. The hills stretching
farther westward, between the valleys of the Aunama and Acarabisi,
hardly attained a height of 100 feet and as the length of the portage
does not amount to quite two miles a cutting would form one of the
most convenient means of communication between the Pomeroon and
Morocco coast and the upper Cuyuni. By nightfall they arrived at a
Carib settlement situate in 7° 4' lat. N. that lay about 510 feet above
sea level. The pathway through the valley of the Acarabisi down which
they climbed next morning was very irksome, for they found here an
uninterrupted series of swamps and had to wade through these boggy
areas under continuous showers of rain. On 13th July they made the
Carib settlement Haiowa which was only but two miles distant from
the waters of the Cuyuni. The same fertility that fringed the banks of

208 ACCIDENT TO THE RELIEF BOAT.

the Baraina was likewise displayed on those of the Cuyuni, judging from
the sugar-cane that grew 15 feet long with a girth of 7£ inches. Haiowa
was situate in 6° 55 lat. N. and 60° 27. long. W., and 260 feet above sea-
level. Although it was here that they had hoped to meet the corial sent
up by me, it had not yet reached up to the 22nd July, which forced
them to embark on the Cuyimi in one that they chartered there. Huge
ranges rose to the westward of the Acarabisi and the summits of
Ekruyeku already attained a height of 2,000 feet above the 4 to 500ft.
broad level of the Cuyuni, the bed of which was tilled to overflowing.
The Macapa Mountains loomed up about a mile inland to the westward
of the Cuyuni. Carried away down at tiptop speed by the augmented
current they passed Kanaima Cataract by afternoon. The numerous
islands were generally covered writh Quassia amara bush, or Bitter- Ash,
the properties of which the Negro Gramman (i.e. Grand man) Quacy,
after whom it receives its name, discovered in 1730. A striking meteor-
ological phenomenon presented itself to the notice of the company in
that every morning at sunrise a strong wind developed in a direction
opposite that of the stream : it gradually veered round to ESE. or,E. by
S. Where the river was free from islands and cataracts it usually had
a width of GOO yards. On the farther side of the Otomong mountains
they met with an almost continuous series of rapids and cataracts
until they got to Poinkamarca, or Womuipong of the Caribs, where, with
a perpendicular fall of 30 feet they had to discharge the corial and drag
it along the bank. A lonely house that was shared by a Waika, his wife
and his dog, afforded them at night a little protection from the rain.
Not far from this hut, which was situate in 6° 46' lat. N., the Aracuna
joined with the Cuyuni: a path leads from it to the Puruni which flows
into the Mazaruni. The granite and gneiss-beds extending almost
without a break from the Macapa Mountains* to the mountains of
Aracuna, a distance of from 50 to 60 miles, that had followed the course
of the Cuyuni and had formed its first series of cataracts, diminished
more and more. About eight miles below the Aracuna mouth and
immediately opposite to some insignificant hills, Tokoro or Tokoru-patti
Island becomes visible and on its farther side the Cuyuni receives its
most considerable tributaries in the Iroma, Kupa, and Appa, which
discharge into it from the North. A much frequented path led to the
Puruni from a small affluent, the Toroparu. The anxiously expected
boat, filled with provisions, that we had promised to forward, had so far
not been seen and my brother was beginning to fear that owing to some
accident or other having prevented us reaching Bartika Grove we had
been unable to despatch the stipulated load. The information they
received at an Indian house dispelled these fears, it is true, but at the
same time destroyed their hopes of behi£ released from the fast to which
they now had been subjected for several days. What they learnt here was
that the corial despatched by us got upset when being hauled over the

* The Macapa Hills are composed of gneiss and gneissose granite. Below Macapa, the
rocks exposed are felsites and porphyries, and those are the rocks which occur " almost
without a break " to Aracuna. The breaks are at Amamnri, Dukwarri, and Devil's Hole
where gneiss or granite occur. (E.E.W.)

209

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208

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FOIIT ZEELANDIA. 209

dangerous .Wackupang cataract, the whole of the provisions being en-
gulfed in the waters of the fall : furthermore that several valuable instru-
ments had got lost and that even the crew who had been on the very brink
of great danger had only saved their lives with difficulty. After paying
off the Indians from Haiowa my brother resumed his journey down
stream with the ship-wrecked crew. Luckier than the latter they passed
the ominous Wackupang Fall 'with which the second series of Cuyuni
cataracts commences. The river bed was also covered with islands, an
appearance which only ceased on the farther side of the Cutuau Mountains
and River in 6° 47' lat. N. On the morning of the 26th July they
reached the third series of cataracts, which takes its origin in an
insignificant mountain range through whiclj the river has broken its way.
At the Aruaka-Ematuba cataract they had again to discharge the corials
and transport overland, in the course of which they had to cross the
Woka or Powis range which rises to about 600 feet above sea-level and
stretches W.N.W. to E.S.E. Farther down, several small islands of
heaped; up masses of rock split the Cuyuni into innumerable channels
and at the same time form the Camaria cataract. This is the moet
dangerous one of all and only the presence of mind of one of the crew
saved my brother and his companions from certain death. At the
Ematuba Fall the site allowed of their emptying the boat once more
and bringing it overland to the foot: they were just as lucky in getting1
over the Acayu Fall whence they now had continuous smooth water as
far as Bartika Grove where they met us all right, on the 27th July.

668. By the following morning we all left the friendly Mission at
Bartika and, travelling down stream along the eastern bank, started on
the journey for Georgetown. At noon next day we already lay opposite
Fort Island, the one-time centre of the whole Dutch trade and former
colonial capital, the remains of which still proudly rise above some
scattered plain-looking cottages occupied by coloured people and over
impenetrable leafy bush. We stopped to get a closer look at the ruins.
Fort Zeelandia was built in the year 1743 in a quadrangle with four
bastions furnished with 18 cannon : in addition, an outwork surrounded
with palisades containing 12 cannon covered the side facing the water.
Every estate had to supply one slave for constmctinfit the Fort, but on
its completion no further cost of upkeep was demanded of the planters.
The offices of the Secretariat and rest of the Company's staff were
formerly located here. Amidst what was left of this once so proud a
building, ever creative Nature had long ago retaken possession of the
land whence she had been despoiled, and her vigorous progeny peacefully
entwined the dark barrels of several iron cannon which, without gun-
carriages but even still defying destruction, protruded from out of the
gay confusion of succulent creepers. One alone of the buildings, the
church, still stood in its surprisingly sublime simplicity: it was the only
church that the English found when they took possession in 1803, and
Divine Service is still held there.

669. Directly opposite the Island, on the eastern bank, is the mouth
of a small tributary, the Bonasika. We had hardly resumed our journey
than the incoming flood forced us to land at the opening of an insigni-
ficant creek, and to wait for the next ebb. Everybody hurried to

210 THE TRIALS OF A COLLECTOR.

their hammocks and make up for the sleep of which we had been
deprived by the early departure. The certain hope, perhaps by next
morning, of getting into Georgetown and of finding after a long, long
interval, letters from home and news of all the loved ones from whom
we had heard nothing since March, made me feel so excited however,
that I disdained the proffered rest, left my slung hammock undisturbed,
and strolled along the bank of the little stream. The Calathea, lutea
and C. juncea Meyer reached a truly giant height here. Out of curiosity I
measured one such long 18-foot stem that up to this height was still
leafless, and was just about proceeding on my way when I saw something
move on a decaying tree trunk lying in front of me, and recognised a
poison viper (Trigonocephalus atrox) just ready to spring and drive
me out of its vicinity. Fortunately I got ahead of it, hurried back for
my gun and shot it through the head. Had I noticed it but a few seconds
later, I probably would not have seen Georgetown again.

670. Commencing ebb gave the signal for departure and we rapidly
made our way down stream along the eastern bank which was hedged in
with Caladium arboresccm (Mucu-mucu of the Colonists) until nightfall
when, on reaching Plantation Greenwich Park, Mr. Van Giinthern, the
manager, offered us a friendly night's lodging: on the following morning
we once more saw Georgetown ahead of us. On arrival at our quarters,
to which we furtively sneaked on account of our clothes having got so
terribly ragged on the journey, we found Mr. Goodall already installed
there : this was the artist recently appointed by the Government who had
only just arrived from England in the packet! boat bringing letters from
Germany.

671. I naturally devoted my first care to the collections which I had
entrusted to the schooner on the Pomeroon. Unfortunately it was no
pleasure to examine their contents: the salt water had made its way into
almost every case and had even destroyed much that had not previously
become sacrificed to the rain and moist temperature. As the schooner
had already set sail again, the responsibility for the damage could not be
fixed: nor could I learn whether the captain, in spite of his solemn
promise, had got them shifted from where they had been packed by us
and brought on deck, or whether the water had found its way into the
vessel through a leak. I lost 80 species of living orchids alone, amongst
which some 20 were new : the winter's cold in Berlin killed the .remainder
of those saved here, amongst them the beautiful new Coryanthm. The
salt water had destroyed a number of bird skins, a large portion of my
dried plants, the biggest half of my incects and the whole wealth of my
ethnological collection, so far as mildew was concerned. Only one who
is himself a collector can really appreciate my feelings when I once more
scanned my treasures, collected at the cost of so much sacrifice and
danger, in such a sad condition. Instead of from the six to eight cases
that I had hoped to despatch to Berlin, only four went by the next ship.
And yet misfortune did not cease to follow in their wake even on the
farther side of the Ocean because, arrived safely in Berlin, my collection
of living orchids that filled two large cases was killed by frost.

672. The depressing news we had received on the Pomeroon con-
cerning the health conditions of Georgetown had unfortunately not been

GEORGETOWN, A CITY QF THE DEAD.

exaggerated. What an absolutely different appearance the eity now
presented to what it previously offered when, sparkling with Life and
Luxury, the most rousing animation was astir! A gloomy oppressive
silence had overspread the place, and instead of shining phaetons and
gigs, sombre hearses alone occupied the quietened streets. As is the
custom in England these were decorated with huge plumes of ostrich
feathers, the white colour of which indicated that a maid or child rested
in the coffin. The friends and dependents of the deceased in slow and
silent procession accompanied the mourning carriages to the last resting-
place, but without sinking in the vault with their beloved dead those
distinctions by which human pride divides the living: the Europeans only
follow the European departed, the coloured folks only the coloured one,
the Negroes but the Negro.

673. The salvoes, repeated several times a day, that rolled over the
city from the Garrison cemetery nearby, shewed that the epidemic of
Yellowr Fever wras also raging in the Military Hospital. This last
honour was paid to every soldier, even though he had gone through no
campaign. It was only the poor sailor, dying from the pestilence in
the Seaman's Hospital, who was laid to rest under the cool decking of
the grave in a plain coffin, without any showy hearse arid attended by
no one. Sailors still free from the disease, for instance, were not allowed
to leave their ship and follow the recent companions of their joys and
sorrows, their former fellow travellers in storm and shine, to the safe
anchorage of everlasting rest. The lovely figures and sparkling eyes
had disappeared from the Ring, while the Promenade on the water-front
mourned in silence and neglect, although the palms still rustled just as
mysteriously as before, and the thousands of flowers continued to fill the
atmosphere with their fragrance. The whole sight vividly recalled to
mind the time when cholera broke out in Berlin and spread its dismal
crane over the equally lively city of the Linden trees. The scourge was
still claiming many of our friends, several of whom we never saw again.

674. The fever wrought the most terrible havoc amongst the first
battalion of the 52nd Regiment, the sailors, and the immigrant Portu-
guese. The first mentioned lost in a short time 80 N.C.O/s and men, and
four officers on which account it was transferred, immediately after our
arrival, to Berbice: of the sailors upon the few ships that lay in the
harbour 62 had already succumbed to the disease, while among the Por-
tuguese six out of every ten attacked always died, with the result that
out of a population of 23,000 individuals, sixteen deaths on an average
occurred daily. It was during this period that, were ooie to cross the
threshold, he would see plenty of people who — suddenly seized by the
complaint, and unable to reach their homes, — would be lying helpless on
the pavement, until the Sanitary Police found them and had them con-
veyed to Hospital: I was repeatedly witness of awful scenes of this
description.

675. Small-pox to which so many, particularly Negroes, fell a victim,
raged in such ghastly association with this Destroying Angel. that the

212 THE RA.VAGES OP YELLOW FEVER.

Executive found itself forced to start a special Hospital for it. Unfor-
tunately this was established in our neighbourhood owing to there being
a house not far off that proved suitable for the purpose : in the course of a
few days it was overcrowded with sick. The physiognomy of a Negro is
not exactly one of the most engaging at the best of times, but this is
increased to one of horror when the head, bared of all hair, is disfigured
by pock marks.

676. Yellow fever which had not appeared epidemically since 1822,
except for a few cases cropping up almost every month in consequence
of the steady immigration, commenced to make its presence felt again in
1837, when it was probably brought about by local causes and continued
almost interruptedly until 1841. The wharves being formerly erected on
piles, as already mentioned, the flood-tide in those days could wash away
all the dirt and rubbish collecting there. .When therefore the posts were
replaced by solid masonry the high water could no longer really make
its way into the narrow channels running between adjacent properties,
and maintain its so salutary an influence upon the sanitary conditions of
the city. The decomposition of all vegetable and animal substances
which takes place so rapidly in the tropics soon engenders a number of
miasmata, which, in the opinion of the medical men, are to be regarded as
the true causes of the epidemic. The disease again spread from Water
Street over the whole city in 1837 and 1839. In the latter year it was
believed that the scourge had disappeared until it suddenly broke out
again with extraordinary virulence among the European troops where it
occasioned terrible losses : it was probably brought about by the Bight,
stretching towards the east of the barracks, being thickly beset with
mangrove and courida bushes, because no deaths occurred at the time
either in Berbice or in any of the outposts. All doctors are agreed in
this that Yellow Fever is a peculiar Typhus; in fact, an exacerbation
either of the intermittent fever so mischievous in the tropics, or else of
the bilious fever likewise very plentiful here. Up to now it has only
raged within the coastal area of Guiana and has usually only attacked
those who have not as yet got accustomed to the sultry unhealthy atmos-
phere pregnant with infectious matter. For the rest, the disease is
limited to the stretch of coast and is one of the greatest rarities in places
lying from eight to ten miles inland. The outbreak of the disease
generally begins with the end of the long wet season when the
thermometer shows a temperature of from 70° to 89° Fahr., and rages
most in September and October. The former assumption that it infects
by contact or association with the sick person has proved to be unfounded,
although it cannot be denied that it takes on an infectious character by
overcrowding the sick people and by individual disposition. The doctors,
at least over there, are not as yet in agreement as to whether the gall,
liver, and portal system do constitute the seat of the disease, because
the blackish substance (Black Vomit) which the patient brings up in
the last stage is said to have very little resemblance with bile. Alexander
von Humboldt's statement that this "coffee grounds"-like substance
leaves indelible stains on linen, wood and wall, has been confirmed on

OUR QUARTERS, A SMALL-POX ASYLUM. 213

my own wash and sickroom. If one heats it to a moderate degree it
develops a quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen.*

677. Within a few days after arrival our hitherto fellow travellers,
Lieut. Glascott and Secretary Hancock, tendered their resignations to
niy brother and the Governor. Both had been none too pleased with the
perils and hardships of an expedition like ours, and as the most danger-
ous of the journeys were still to be performed they thought it wiser to
withdraw before they started. Glascott intended settling in Georgetown
as a Land Surveyor, especially as Emancipation had brought about
considerable changes in the relations of property and opened a profitable
field for his activities : Hancock on the other hand wanted to renew at
the Colonial Hospital the medical course that he had thrown up a long
time before, and later on to practise as a full-fledged physician. Un-
fortunately he fell into bad company, left the Hospital a few days later,
and indulged his propensity for spirituous liquor unchecked: within
three weeks of leaving us he was down with fever and beyond hope of
recovery.

678. A lucky chance relieved niy brother quicker than he expected, of
the dilemma in which Glascott's retirement had placed him. A cer-
tain Mr. Fryer who had served in the Anglo-Spanish Legion at first as
doctor, and then for three years as officer, and had fought in the battle
of Vittoria and several others of that campaign, but after the disbanding
of the Legion wanted to try his luck in Guiana, gladly accepted the ap-
pointment offered him. The loss was therefore replaced and no further
obstacle threatened on this scor-e, but my brother was still waiting in
vain for the new instructions that were delayed owing to a change
in the Ministry at home having taken place in the meantime. Although
what with the present sad and gloomy conditions of the times, we felt
very restless at having to postpone our departure until the receipt of
orders to that effect, we nevertheless liad to make the best of a bad job
and mutually reproved one another for fretting. The Smallpox Hospital,
however, made our stay still more depressing, for owing to the large
number of patients and small number of attendants, it happened daily
that often more than one patient mad with fever, would escape from the
Institution and, owing to some inexplicable predilection for us, almost
always seek asylum in our quarters from the dangers created in their
fevered imaginations. The look of such a madman who could only be
brought back to hospital by force and to the accompaniment of the most

* This is an excellent example of the confused pathology of the day with regard to the diseases in
question. The author was probably correct in saying that " doctors are agreed that Yellow Fever
is a peculiar Typhus" since little was known as to the aetiolosry either of Typhus or of Yellow Fever.
Yellow Fever, Typhus and the various forms of Malarial Fever appear all to have been grouped to-
gether. It is noteworthy that the Yellow Fever epidemic was confined almost entirely, as he remarks,
to the City of Georgetown, Berbice and the outposts escaping. This distribution, of course, depended
largely upon the distribution of Stegomyia fatciata in those days. The whole description, however, is
an excellent example of the remarkably acute observation of the author. He notes that it attacked
' those who have not yet got accustomed," "begins at the end of the long wet season," that the " former
assumption as to contact or association with sick persons is unfounded,1' the "black substance had litlle
resemblance to bile," etc. (F.G.R.)

L'HEUREUSE AVENTUBE.

awful shrieking was truly horrible and one can hardly imagine anything
more terrible than those frightened figures with bald heads and bloody
faces. Under these circumstances I gladly accepted Mr. Bach's invita-
tion to spend a little time on his estate where I would find an infinitely
richer field for my botanical excursions than what the environs of the
city could now oft'er me. I was soon sitting beside my kindly host who,
just returning from town as a member of the Colonial Parliament, was
now on his way up the Demerara to Number One Canal, where his fine
estate of L'Heureuse Aventure was close by. The pretty residence was
situate about 100 paces distant from the canal, and connected with it by
a wonderful avenue of orange trees and of flowering Agaves that spread
out their 50 to 60 foot high flower-stalks like colossal candelabra: for
one of these giants stood regularly between every two orange trees. A
glorious hedge of Clerodendron inerme, carefully trimmed with shears,
surrounded the front of the desirable mansion that had been built in
Dutch style. The out-houses stretched away to the right of the avenue
while a large green pasture, planted up with huge Erythrina Coralloden-
drou trees that sheltered a herd of cows resting under their shadows, led
away to the left. The garden, which had roused my curiosity ever since
I came to America, immediately bordered this grassy spot. The interior
of the building was quite as nice as the outside, but it did not interest
me just now. My curiosity drove me out again to see the cultivation
which latter had also been described to me as a model farm.
Having already received the orchids collected by my brother
in the interior during his journeys in the years 1838-1839, an
almost complete collection of all the Guiana orchids was to be seen
gathered here in a comparatively small space. There was not a tree
trunk that did not have growing upon and below it the most beautiful
plants and blossoms, while huge stands with hundreds of boxes contained
the younsr plants for which no more room was to be found on the
trees and branches. The glorious Cattlcya superba Schonxb., Burlinfj-
tonia Candida Lindl., Coryanthes maculata Hook., C. macrantha
Hook., Schomlburglcia, Epideridron, Brassavola, Barkcria, Bletia,
Aspasia, Maxillaria, Huntleya, Cycnoches, Catasetum, Stanhopea,
Gongora, Peristeria, Monachanthns, Cytribidium, Zygopetalum,
Jonopsis, Rodriguesia, Fernandezia, Pleurothallis? Brajteia, Bobralia,
Cleistcs, Vanilla, Oyrtopodium, and Galeandra with all their known
species were grouped together according to the colours of their flowers,
and formed in fact a real Fairy Garden in which almost every sense
found free indulgence. Remaining indigenous and foreign families
planted in beds for which the lovely Amaryllis Belladonna formed a
border were equally as fully represented as the orchids. A thicket
of Gardenia florida and Hibiscus rosa sinensis encircled a small pond
upon the surface of which the glorious Eichornia azurea Kunth., Lim-
nocharis Humboldtii Rich., Burmannia bicolor and a number of
Nymphaeae spread their motley covering of flowers : above it a huge
Cassia fistula stretched its branches hung with innumerable seed-pods
an ell long. Sad to say one still missed among the Nympliaeae the

COFFEE CULTIVATION. 215

Victoria rcgia} that botanical woiider which all attempts to domesticate
here have hitherto proved ineffectual.*

679. However much I was enchanted with this lovely garden and
its abundance of beauteous flowers, I was just as extremely interested
in the coffee plantation : as a matter of fact the regularity of the grounds
and buildings, the carefully considered plan for taking advantage of the
land and its waters, in a word its whole outward arrangement and high
intrinsic worth deserved full recognition. I will attempt to describe
Mr. Bach's estate, L'Heureuse Aventure. From, the back of the residence
a broad straight mainrwalk, planted up with fruit trees, divided the
whole flat into two equal parts: between every two huge mango trees
were to be seen growing two other fruit trees, such as Achras Sapota,
Per sea gratissima, Mammea americana, Citrus decumana, Anona
muricata> A. squamosa, Anacardium occidentale, and Tamarindus indica.
A trench that ran along and parallel with the main-walk on either side
separated this main way from the 32 foot broad coffee-beds, bordering
upon it at right angles, which were again divided from one another
by two-foot wide drains through which the water collecting was led to
the above main trenches. Every bed contained from three to four rows
of coffee bushes, of which each row stood eight to nine feet from the
next, all four rows being enclosed by two rows of wide-branched
Erythrinae to protect them from their greatest enemies, the scorching
sun and sharp north wind, especially during the blossoming when both
exert a most damaging influence upon the harvest, which indeed they
may spoil together. If the blossom has survived a warm moist tempera-
ture of from 75° to 85° Fahr. and dry sunny weather follows, the
planter's hopes are satisfied, because he can then expect 1| pounds
cleaned coffee from every fullgrown bush. A labourer can comfortably
look after two acres of land and at the same time pick the berries,
because after the plantation is once established he only has to weed and
remove the root-suckers two or three times. When the plant has reached
a height of from four to five feet it is "topped" so that the side branches
may increase and the flow of sap to them from the root stock be assured.
The cost of bringing an acre of bush under coffee cultivation amounts to
from 60 to 80 dollars, according to the nature of the bush. To set up a
coffee plantation one wants young seedlings that are grown in special
beds or the seed itself is planted in the spot required. In the former case
seedlings that have reached a height of two feet are transplanted: these
are nulled out with great care, but neither the tap roots nor side roots
are lopped. In two years' time the plant has already reached a con-
siderable height, and in the third a small cron can be expected. From
the plantation I made my way to the coffee mill or thatch-shed (mooslacie)
where the ripe berries are first of all brought. These are picked twice
a year, in May and June and from Septeniber until November: the
"blossoming for the former crop begins in November and lasts until
Decemfor, that for the second from the end of March to the end of April.
When the pulp gets quite red the tiean is mature and the work of

* Subsequent attempts in Georgetown and elsewhere have however met with success. (Ed.)

216 COFFEE MANUFACTURE.

harvesting commences, the ripe beans in the meantime being carefully
picked daily. When the labourers have loaded a puntful this is taken to
the mill, where the beans are gradually poured into a box raised high up :
they fall out of this through an opening on to a roller which, supplied
all the way round with longitudinal strips of beaten copper, turns in a
half cylinder of wood that is grooved on the inside and lined with copper
bars. By means of a winch at each end of the roller this is turned on
its own axis and the beans in the narrow space between the roller and the
half cylinder are thereby hulled. From here the soft squashy mass
passes over into a long guttering fixed at a height of about four feet from
the ground down the bottom of which runs an equally long slit: this
gutteiing is covered by laths laid on top in such a way that on both
sides there is left open a space through which the hands of several
labourers, generally women, press the hulled beans through the slit, and
the pulpy mass thus kneaded in the guttering is shoved on to her neigh-
bour who manipulates it again. Below the guttering runs a stone
channel filled with water into which the beans fall and where they are
completely rinsed of the slimy stuff still sticking to them. All beans
that float on the water, the so-called "drift" or "waste" coffee, are
separated from those that sink: those still remaining behind in the
pulpy mass are subsequently separated from it and put aside with the
drift. Directly connected with the mill is the drier that consisted of a
brick pavement more than 200 feet long and about 80 feet wide, raised
towards its middle, supplied with a number of three-inch wide gutters
and having a six-inch raised edging around the whole of it: when rain
falls the water escapes by way of the former. The beans after the wash-
ing are spread out on the pavement to dry, after which they are poured
on to the floors of the coffee-logie directly adjoining. This consists of
a big building with three to four airy floors, upon which the beans have
to be continually turned, so that the coffee may not become somewhat
musty and mouldy through the moisture still remaining. In the lower
room of the coffee-logie is to be seen the 40 foot long stamper, a huge
tree trunk with a number of round holes sunk in it. When the coffee on
the floor is completely dried it is once again poured in small quantities
into these cavities, and pounded with wooden rammers to remove the
fine outer skin, a process that has to be handled with the greatest care
so that no beans may be crushed, and at the present time is generally
carried out by stamping mills. Formerly the value of a coffee plantation
of about 750 acres (300 Khynland square roods to the acre) amounted
when in good condition, to from 20 to 25,000 pounds sterling: after
Emancipation it sank to from 4 to 5,000 pounds.

680. Mr. Bach was born in Jever in Oldenburg and as a young fellow
of sixteen without any means, came out to Demerara, where he obtained
a billet as overseer on an estate. Thanks to his industry he acquired a
considerable competency and subsequently bought L'Heureuse Aventure
where he spent his time in cultivating the estate and pursuing his
favourite study, botany : his voluminous library referring to this
department of science was undoubtedly one of the choicest. In Mr.
Bach's whole character and manner of living one could not deny the

I ATTEND A HOWLER- MONKEYS' CONCERT. 217

Dutchman. He drank his bottle of Rhine wine a day, kept an exquisite
table and daily observed the same strict regularity: he got up to the
minute and with watch in hand, gave his cook the time when to put
the eggs on to boil for breakfast, and similarly when she was to take
them off and place them on the table : in fact with his watch Mr. Bach
got out of bed, with his watch he regulated his day, and with his watch
he brought it to a close. I soon got accustomed to this strictly ordered
way of living and always turned up in time for meals, for it did not
take me long to learn that those who were late were regarded as non-
existent. No sooner had I become properly schooled than, sad to say,
a serious inflammatory fever caused a violent upset in this restful life
under Dutch rule. Though the scorching sunshine and tropical rain
showers that had so often soaked us through on the expedition might
have paved the way for the disease, its outbreak was hastened by my own
thoughtless ardour.

681. Directly after my arrival there I had heard at times of sunrise
and sunset the awful screeches of the many howler-monkeys (Mycetea
yeniculus) proceeding from the virgin forest which in many places
stretched down to the canal, and yet I never succeeded in locating the
animals on the many excursions I undertook. As one morning after
breakfast, with hunting gear in hand, I was making my way to the
forest and again heard the ghastly shrieking within its depths, my zeal
became fired for the chase. Without looking to right or left I hurried
through thick and thin in the direction of the noise. After a good deal
of exertion and a long search I finally reached the troupe without my
being noticed. The musical choir, perched ahead of me upon a high
tree, was conducting a concert cacophonous enough for anyone to believe
that all the wild animals of the forest were being engaged in a fight to a
finish, although it is not to be denied that it was governed by a sort
of harmony: sometimes the company, distributed over the wrhole tree,
suddenly ceased their noise as if to a time-beat and sometimes, equally
unexpectedly, one of the performers would strike up his jarring note
anew, and the howling commenced afresh. The bony drum of the hyoid;-
bone which by its resonance gives just that mighty strength to the voice,
could be seen moving up and down during the screeching. There were
moments when the sound resembled the grunting of a pig, in the next
second the growl of a jaguar in the act of pouncing on its prey, to change
soon again into that deep and awful snarling of the same carnivorous
beast when, surrounded on all sides, it recognises the danger threatening.
The horrible performance nevertheless had its laughable side and the face
of the most melancholy misanthrope would momentarily have shewn
traces of a smile had he seen how stiffly and gravely these long-bearded
concertists regarded each other. Mr. Bach had told me that every troupe
has its own preicentor, which is distinguished from all the deep bass-
singers not only by its high shrill note but also by a much slenderer and
slimmer figure. I found the first part of the statement absolutely
confirmed here, but as to the second I searched in vain for the fine and
slender figure, though, instead of that I noticed upon the next tree two
silent individuals which I took to be sentinels on guard : if that were the

218 AND GET LOST IN THE BUSH

case they had performed their duty badly enough, for 1 was standing close
by unnoticed. To get hold of a young living specimen if possible I had
taken aim at a female with such a one on its back. The shot went off
and with the most horrible howling and growling the whole troupe,
taking some huge jumps from tree to tree, scattered helter-skelter in all
directions. In trying to follow, the wounded mother's strength soon
failed her, and after several fruitless attempts she clasped the branch
and uttered those so often described awful human-like groans which
were answered on alt sides from a more or less remote distance by the
others: indeed two of the fugitives even turned back, probably to render
assistance in answer to her wail, though this may have seemed risking
too much when they recognised me. A second shot put an end to her
sufferings and brought her down, with the youngster still clasping
tightly to her back : I removed it, and placing it on my own shoulders,
intended making my way home. But where was home? On my right,
on my left, in front, or behind me? Everything I asked myself about
it remained without reply because in my recent violent haste I had taken
uo notice of the way and had now lost its direction. Without fixing my
«ight on anything at all, without breaking a twig, I had just followed
on to where I heard the concert, and now looking perplexedly around,
could find no outlet from the labyrinth. ''Straight ahead" the old
saying advised me, and so I took a quick and firm course over open and
dense brush-wood, recognising my foot-tracks as I thought, in every
pressed-down leaf without any foreboding that I was all the time only
increasing the distance from the starting point. Twice I even got back
to the tree from which I had obtained my quarry: twice I turned my
steps in a different direction, but on each occasion in vain — the closely
interlaced tree-tops, which blocked every ray of sunshine from the path,
remained just as thickly entangled. Suddenly what had hitherto been
twilight changed to night, and the rain fell in torrents while the vivid
lightning flashed at intervals between the dull booms of thunder across
the dense forest-depths and drove its denizens past me in awe-struck flight.
Heedless of the most beautiful birds that rose ahead of me, heedless of
the troupes of monkeys that enjoyed watching my misfortunes, heedless
of the many deer, tiger-cats, in fact everything that I came across — I now
had but one desire on which my whole interest was centred, to reach the
end of the forest. At last, exhausted and overpowered, I threw myself
under a tree to recover, yet the increasing darkness would not let me
rest. I jumped up afresh, commenced wandering off again and soon
found myself once more under the very tree that I had only just left.
Hands and face were already torn and the remnants of my trousers and
linen jacket hung down in long strips when, with a final effort, I broke
through another flense clump of bush and saw a second apparently end-
less one lying beyond it. With this last display of strength n?y courage
failed and with it the hope firmly implanted in me up to now of finding
my way out of the labyrinth to-day : I lay clown. I remained a long while
in deep meditation until my eyes fell upon the dead monkey which I had
been unconsciously carrying about with me, and my thoughts took
another direction. The youngster, wet through, still sat on its lifeless

WHERE I SP^NU AN AWFUL NIGHT.

219

mother and now sought to still its hunger at her dried-up breast. Over-
come with fatigue I fell asleep. When I awoke the night was pitch
dark and what with the thousands of mosquitoes making a St. Laurence's
grill of my shake-down and the cold making its way through the wet
ri'mnants of niy clothes, all idea of rest was oat of the question. It was
an awful time, the horror of which was still further increased by the
wild flights of imagination caused by the fit of fever that I already felt
within my limbs. In every rustle of a leaf upon the ground I feared a
snake, in every glow-worm whirring through the bush I recognised the
sparkling and fiery eyes of a jaguar: indeed, in the former case niy
fright increased to a certainty when I felt something cold creeping upon
me and did not dare to brush it off in case of hastening its deadly bite. I
sat motionless beneath the forest trees and with bated breath stared
into the darkness until the whimpering of the little ape, that probably
missed the accustomed warmth on its mother's cold body, recalled me to
my immediate surroundings and to an appreciation of my desperate
situation. There still remained the hope that Mr. Bach, anxious about
my absence, would have sent people to look for me: in this I was not
deceived, for I soon heard the sound of a horn and from time to time the
report of a gun. My spirits revived. I seized my weapon to answer the
shot, but the trigger was pulled in vain, the percussion cap snapped
without effect, and the barrel remained silent. Mad with rage I threw
away the gun that the rain had rendered useless, the powder having
turned into pap, and wanting to jump up and hurry after the shots that
were retreating more and more, found it to be impossible owing to the
stiffness in my limbs — finally I lost consciousness and resting on the
dead monkev I sank into a deep sleep. At daybreak I again heard voices
and shots approaching and my calls were heard at last. I lay about a
hundred paces from the road, an hour from Mr. Bach's estate : the little
monkey was huddled up on my shoulder. They brought me to the house
where by afternoon I was down with a violent attack of fever that left
me delirious for several days when my powerful constitution rose
victorious over the disease and gave me back my life. In company with
my brother, whom Mr. Bach had sent for during the period of greatest
clanger, I returned to Georgetown.

682. The dry season had now set in again and the sombre rain clouds
disappeared. The following indicate the results of meteorological
observations for August: —

BAROMETER IN INCHES.

THERMOMETER FAHR.

Max.

Min.

Av'ge.

Greatest
Difference.

Max.

Min.

Av'ge.

Greatest
Difference.

30-09

29-83

29-949

0-21

82-532

On our departure at the end of December the following were the records
for September, October and November :—

220

DIFFERENT SEASONS ON COAST AND IN INTERIOR.

BAROMETER IN INCHES.

THERMOMETER FAHR.

M'th.

Max.

Min.

Av'ge.

Greatest
Difference.

Max.

88
89
90
87

Min.

Av'ge.

Greatest
Difference.

Sep.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.

30.00
29-99
29-96
30-01

29-74
29'80
29-77
29-82

29-878
29-904
29-883
29.905

0-26
0-19
0-19
0-19

79
78
77
75

83-316
83-5
82-366
80-19

9
11
13
12

683. A peculiar difference takes place with regard to the seasons of
the year between the interior and coastal districts: for in the former
the change occurs but once, whereas on the coast it is repeated, so that
in the latter one speaks of a short and long rainy and dry season
respectively. The rainy season commences with December and con-
tinues up to February when the small dry season follows on to April
which again, from May to July, is interrupted by the long wet one. In
the interior on the contrary, only one rainy season is recognised and that
from April until middle of August. During the rainy season the land
wind is the one prevailing : towards its end this changes into a markedly
predominant Easlterly Trade-wind which, when the day is drawing to a
close, always becomes stronger, but by ten o'clock at night takes off again.
Associated with this, however, the atmosphere has yet more subsidiary
currents, particularly a sea and land breeze : the former blows from the
north-east and cools the heat of the day, while the warm land-breeze on
the other hand rises at night in the south-east and prevents its cooling
too rapidly. In general the temperature of the day differs from that
taken of a morning fefore 6 a.m. by eight to ten degrees.

684. Immediately after our arrival from England the Governor,
acting on instructions, had sent the Inspector of Police and two officers
of the 52nd Regiment to Pirara with despatches in which England
requested the evacuation of the village on the part of the Brazilians, a
demand which up to now had not been obeyed. Shortly after our return
from L'Heureuse Aventure my brother got his marching orders at the
same time that the Governor received instructions to send to Pirara,
along with our expedition, a detachment of the 1st West India Regiment
including surgeons, commissariat, two cannon, and the material necessary
for defence purposes : they were to drive the Brazilians out by force and
take possession of the spot invaded.

685. This information gave new zest and put fresh life into us, and
as we were probably saying farewell to all civilisation for several years
to come, had to make the most varied preparations which, owing to the
continued prevalence of fever, could not be carried out as easily as we
wished. All the ridiculous and vexatious scenes that had already
presented themselves during our previous preparations wrere re-enacted
to an enhanced degree. One boat could not now hold the provisions and
trade which the expedition found it necessary to take: so a second one,
41 feet long, had to be built, and two smaller ones, second hand, from

THE MILITARY EXPEDITION. 221

25 to 30 feet long, had still to be bought. I was also forced to get the
sides of mine raised; for which I of course had to pay the monstrous price
of 81 dollars.

686. After the small squadron of five ships, with the national
colours neatly painted on, was launched, the corials were christened : my
brother called the largest one "Louise," mine I named "Elizabeth." The
largest portion of our former boathands were signed on afresh as
paddlers; Stockle likewise performed duty again and brought along
another three Germans who offered their services, and even Hamlet left
my brother no peace until h3 once more installed him as cook. It thus
came to pass that we hired a portion of the boats' crews even before the
.Waikas and Warraus whom Caberalli promised to supply had put in an
appearance: it was these upon whom we mostly depended because they
are undoubtedly the best pullers. Unfortunately, however, the number we
wanted never ariived and, except the captains (steersmen) whom my
brother had already picked from among the coloured people on the
Essequibo, the paddlers still missing had to be replaced. Each coloured
puller received monthly 15 dollars, each captain 20, and each Indian 6,
for all of whom my brother had still to find their board : this consisted
of rice, salt fish, pickled meat, biscuit, and two glasses of rum together
with a fixed quantity of tobacco daily. Forty-one persons, however,
required a considerable quantity of provisions, which could not be pro-
cured so quickly. Eight of the most useful and serviceable of the lot
were signed on for two years with the expedition : the remainder had only
to take us as far as the Macusi settlement, Pirara. When the boxes
and barrels of provisions, the numerous trunks and packages containing
"trade" for the Indians whom my brother thought of engaging amongst
the different interior tribes, came to be reckoned up, one can imagine how
heavily our five boats were freighted when finally ready to leave. And
yet our preparations were as nothing compared with those of the army
of conquest for whose transport nine! big vessels were built which, in
addition to the detachment, had also to carry four months' provisions for
Pirara. As the soldiers were not engaged to serve as boathands, 120
paddlers had to be taken on : each soldier and boathand received a daily
ration of i Ib. salt meat with rice and biscuit, besides a certain measure
of rum and a fixed quantity of sugar.

687. In spite of being thus busily occupied, consequent on our de-
parture that was drawing so nigh, we had nevertheless not forgotten
poor Maicerwari and never let a week pass without paying him a visit
at the jail, the strict confinement of which he had unfortunately brought
upon himself. It seems that both he and the witnesses on their arrival
in Georgetown had been subjected to light custody only, but unable to
bear even this restriction, had seized the first suitable opportunity of
returning to Cumaka. Their escape naturally rendered their confine-
ment more severe, and after being brought back Maicerwari had been
locked into a narrow cell. Notwithstanding that my brother had
solemnly sworn that Cumaka was situate in disputed territory and could
be claimed just as much by Venezuela as by England, yet the authorities
wanted to bring the poor boy up for trial at the next Criminal Sessions

222 A SUMMONS FOR THE CRIMINAL SESSIONS.

that were to be held not before March. When on my return from
L'Heureuse Aventure I stepped for the first time into Maicerwari's cell
I hardly recognised our powerful young friend whose eyes once beamed
so bravely. He was a real picture of misery, his v^hole body swollen, and
the brilliancy of his eyes dulled. The unfortunate lad's joy on seeing
me was boundless, but it was even greater however when my brother
obtained the Governor's permission for him to walk about the prison-
yard during the day, and to exchange the hitherto sack of straw for his
beloved hammock at night.

688. The case of poor Maicerwari might almost have upset the
whole of our calculations. The Governor's wife and daughter arrived
from England a short while before we were to leave. As the latter had
received her education on the Bhine she spoke German fluently and with
almost emotional preference, and we spent most of the evenings up to
the time of our departure in the company of these intellectual and
interesting ladies : they rendered themselves equally conspicuous by their
highly cultured tastes as well as by a kindliness of heart which enhanced
the natural loveliness of Miss Light with the higher charm of spiritual
grace. In company with other ladies Miss Light seemed to be the only
red rose in a big bouquet of white Ccntifolias whom unfortunately, she
was only too soon to resemble. When we returned from the primeval
forests to Georgetown two years later, not the slightest trace of this
youthful bloom, this delicate tint, this breath of fresh rose, was to be
seen on her once glowing cheeks.

689. The last day of our stay in Georgetown was to wind up with
a big ball which the Governor had fixed for the 22nd December in honour
of his wife's and daughter's arrival in the Colony. To attend this
enchanting entertainment was the one and only heart's desire of all
Georgetown's gilded youth, for the whole fashionable world was to be
invited. All arrangements were made for going next morning direct
from the ballroom on board the steamer, "Flora Hastings," that had
been already loaded and was to take us, together with our boats, up the
Essequibo as far as Station Am pa. My brother went out to say goodbye
to some families, whom, owing to their colour, he did not dare hope
to meet at the Governor's, but within a few minutes hastily returned
looking upset. "Bring this and that here/' he said to me. "Look after
this and that, I've got to clear, for I just met counsel foi- poor Maicerwari
who told me I cannot leave Georgetown now as I have to attend the
criminal sessions due in March and must again swear to what I already
told the High Sheriff on oath. But so that I cannot escape their inten-
tions, the warrant is just being got out and will probably be served on
me within the next half hour." There was not a minute more to be lost,
l>ecause my brother had to be secretly smuggled out of the city before the
minion of the law crossed our threshold : were the latter to meet him,
every chance of the expedition getting away before the end of the
sessions would be lost. The laws in connection with such a summons
are so strict that if the warrant had been served on niy brother by the
bearer or had been put down in his presence, not even the Queen, much
less the Governor, coulfl have freed him from his legal obligations. It

AND How MY BROTHER EVADED IT. 223

was of the utmost importance therefore that my brother should not stay
a moment longer, especially as he could be of no further use to Maicer-
wari by re-swearing to the affidavit, and Besides, it was generally under-
stood that the latter would be let off. Without taking a minute to decide
he went to the house of a friend living on the water-front, which he
intended leaving after nightfall for the western bank of the Demerara
from where he would ride to the Essequibo and wait for us at Plantation
Greenwich Park: we were to let him know by an arranged signal
whether it was safe for him to board the steamer.

690. Hardly had he got out of the house than a police officer with

the mighty document in his hand came and asked for him, and when I

told him that he had gone out, handed it over to me : I nevertheless took

good care not to touch it, because no one can be forced to take a warrant

for someone else, but everybody who does so engages himself to guarantee

the appearance of the person summoned. After awaiting in vain my

brother's return for over an hour and making repeated ineffectual

attempts to force the warrant upon one of us, the deluded servant of

the law threw it on the ground and left the house. He returned soon

after with a Police Inspector and a whole crowd of subservient spirits

to search the residence from floor to garret, and then to surround it on

all sides with spies so as to make sure of trapping their man on his

return : in fact when at night we got near the Governor's house we found

it also surrounded by these gentry, they certainly seeming to have

thought that my brother could not resist the attractions of such a ball.

And in fact the ball was brilliant, the most brilliant that I had as yet

attended, and at which, after missing them a long time, the well-known

melodies in the waltzes of Strauss and Lanner fell upon my ear. I was

a passionate dancer though I felt, after waltzing with Miss Light a few

times, that my strength had already become very much reduced by the

climate, and could not blame my pretty yet young and vigorous partner

for the statement that she found none but weak and bad waltzers hero.

T was much amused over the thousand and one questions about my

brother: there was general surprise that he, the Governor's adjutant.

should be absent, because the expedition had to leave in the morning and

for that same reason His Excellency had chosen this very day for the

festivities. Of course I also did not know where he was, and could only

reply in similarly surprised strains.

CHAPTER VII.

Expedition to the Interior of Guiana — Departure from Georgetown —
Ampa Station — Osterbecke Point — Commencement of the Rapids and
Cataracts — Flora of the lower Essequibo region — Itaballi Cataract
— Aharo — Laying season for Turtle — Gluck Island — Arissaro
Mountains — Commencement of the second series of Cataracts —
Waraputa Mission — Hieroglyphics — Kanaima — Twasinki and
Akaiwanna, Ranges — Tambicabo Island — Ouropocari Cataract —
Achramucra — Rupununi — Carib settlement — Kirahagh Aurime —
Savannah — Macusis — Victoria, Regia — Haiowa Macusi village —
Sndis gigas — Savannah fires — Wai-ipukari Inlet — Tapir hunt —
Awaricuru.

691. Fuddled and drunk after the night spent in revelry, and tired
out with waltzes and quadrilles, we sneaked at daybreak into our quar-
ters really with the intention of immediately going aboard the steamer,
though this actually took place only by 10 o'clock, because, owing to my
brother's absence, I yet had to discuss some further business with the
military officers who would only be following a fortnight later.

692. The word of command from the captain set the machinery agog,
the paddle-wheels ploughed bravely into the waves, and we had already
somewhat cheered the depressed paternal heart of Hamlet who, in the
swishing and booming of the pumps, thought he recognised the bitterest
reproaches of his wife and children le'ft crying on the wharf and wrhom
lie, howling in the paroxysm of his grief, wanted to rejoin by jumping
overboard, — when from behind a thick clump of bush there pulled
towards us a boat containing several men of whom one ordered the
skipper to stop. It was again the Police Inspector and his subordinates
who were come on board to search the vessel through for my brother.
Amidst the general laughter of the crew and many a witty remark with
which the coloured people are always ready, he had to return to his boat
without having discovered the escapee while wre, amidst the joyous
hurrahs of the crowd gathered on shore and the equally joyous answer
of the sailors speedily sped around the 20 mile wide peninsula formed of
alluvial soil that divides the Demerara from the Essequibo. On
reaching the mouth of the latter a last farewell for many a long day was
said to Georgetown as it hid behind the tongue of land and the delightful
estate of Greenwich Park came into view. The arranged-for signal was
given notifying freedom from danger and hardly had the captain checked
the vessel's engines on her rapid course than a boat made its appearance
from out of the thick growth on the shore, and brought my brother and
Mr. van Giinthern on board where they were both heartily received.
We reached Ampa Station, lying 80 miles further, only about midnight,
at which late hour we had to discharge cargo, the steamer having to
return to town next morning. Stockle's former unlucky star seemed
as if it were about to follow him again at the commencement of

Macusi, Paravilhano- und Warrau-IndiaDer.

MACUSI, PARAVILHANO, AND WARRAU INDIANS.

The left hand figure is Saramang, a Macusi from Pirara ; the central,
is Sororeng, one of the Paravilhanos from the Rio Branco and its tributaries : the
right hand one is Corrienau, a Warrau whose tribe occupied the coastal regions
from the Orinoco to the Corentyn. All these three Indians were brought to
England by Robert Schomburgk in 1839, and after a nine-months' stay, returned
to their Native homes. Sororeng figures plentifully in the texts as the guide and
friend of Richard Schomburgk, (Ed.)

VAMPIRE BATS. 225

journey : for instance, while busy discharging, we suddenly heard a great
splash in the water and immediately afterwards the poor Swabian crying
for help: though more dead than alive he was fortunately soon got on
deck again. He could hardly describe in sufficiently ghastly terms the
horror he experienced when, for the first time in his life, he had felt the
ground give way under his feet.

693. Desirous of completing our crews, my brother, who did not feel
too safe at Ampa, hurried off at daybreak to Bartika Grove, quite as
much for_recruiting the coloured people there as for ensuring the safety
of his own person from the persecution of the law. If any suspicious
person was to be seen at Ampa two cannon shots would let him know at
Bartika Grove that danger threatened and that he must hide in the
forest. Ampa Station lies in 6° 28' 47" lat. N. and 58° 36' 25" long. W.
upon a small hill close to the bank from which a very pretty vista opens
over the Essequibo which receives specially increased charm from Bartika
Grove, the neck of land lying immediately opposite, with its pretty
cheery-coloured houses conspicuous among the shadows of the palms and
plantains. The rock that cropped up on the hill was identical with what
we had found at Itaka, six miles below Ampa, and at the- mouths of the
Cuyuni and Mazaruni. It commonly consists Of gneiss and granite in
different modifications amongst which a granite with two different sorts
of felspar and white mica is particularly noticeable: great quartz-veins
lead through it. The gneiss met with is co-loured dark with plenty of
black mica and shows in isolated spots copious intervening layers of red
felspar.

694. On waking in the morning I wras not a little surprised to see
that both the goats and several of Mr. Baird's fowls were bleeding in
many places, and enquiring for the reason he told me that it was due
to the numerous vampires (Pliyllostoma spectrum) which had nested in
the old station quarters : "They have done more damage," said he, "to my
domestic animals than the jaguars and tiger-cats from which at least
those not attacked can escape. That, however, is not the case here,
because these harpies, while sucking the blood, gently wave their wings
and so do not rouse the victims from their slumbers." The better to
know these cunning creatures which still their thirst for blood with so
much sense, Mr. Baird hurried me off to the old building where, clinging
on with their feet, three or four such beasties were hanging from almost
every beam of the rotten roof. Not far from their sleeping quarters
and at the same time under the rafters and cross-beams I found whole
supplies of green fruits and long half-ripe pods of a Bignonia which, as
Mr. Baird assured me, they had dragfte'd there; this would seem to
indicate that the animals lived not only on blood and animal food but
also upon a vegetable diet. A flowering sawari tree (Pekea tuberculosa
Aubl., Caryocar tomentosum Willd.) must also have had a good deal of
attraction for them, because as soon as they came out of their lurking
places of an evening they swarmed around it in huge crowds and broke
off many of the blossoms. Although my host protested that they have
a predilection for bananas I nevertheless believe that they only break the
bjossonis off the former accidentally while hunting after insects, whicjj

226 THE SNAKE-TREE.

was all the more likely as the fallen flower-buds had not been bitten.
A small species of the genus Glossophaga, according to the description,
especially affects cattle.

695. What I noted to-day in the goats and fowls, I was able to note
next morning on one of my people who had been similarly attacked
during the night. The blood-soaked hammock and the visible weakness
of the man indicated that the loss of blood he had suffered must have been
fairly considerable. The wound was on the big toe and had quite the
triangular shape left from the bite of a leech : its edges were somewhat
swollen. The sleeper had been just as little roused from slumber by
the onslaught as were the goats, and it was from his fellow mates that
he first learnt that he had been unconsciously bled during the night. The
blood still flowed fairly strong from the wound and could only be
staunched after a lot of trouble. It is strange that with men it is
generally the toes only that the creature seems to attack.

690. Falling into the Essequibo somewhat to the north of the
station quarters is the small stream Ampa, on the banks of which we
found the Snake tree, so called locally on account of the curious shape
of its embryo. My brother had seen it on his previous journeys but had
no more chance of examining its flowers then than I had now, the
opportunity for doing so being only vouchsafed to us shortly before our
departure. As a result of this examination the tree belongs to the
family Sapindaceae and, on account of the striking resemblance of the
embryo, received the name Ophiocaryon parado.Tum Schomb. The fruit
consists of an almost round nut, the size of our walnuts, and on
removing the outer shell one finds inside a membrane-covered kernel

looking exactly like a rolled -up snake, even the head and eyes being dis-
tinctly represented. I found another curiously shaped plant, the
Maxillaria Ktcclii Hook, just as plentiful here with its rush-like leaves
often 5 to 6 feet long hanging from the tree: the perfume of its brown
spotted blossoms excels that of all other species of this family.

697. Though surrounded by the virgin forests and meadows of
Guiana, my thoughts last night were intent upon my native country,
from which the sea now separated me and where I wandered still in
spirit even to-day : for yesterdav was Christmas Eve and with this
morning's sunrise Christmas Bay had brightened up mv home. Rut
what a contrast between the garniture of mv surroundings and the
drapery worn by Nature at that gay festival of the North. There,
probably the snow was spreading its white veil over the fallow field,
and thousands of hearts beating with excitement were taking no notice
of the marl gust of wind blustering through the streets and driving
the snow before it, but were only waiting impatiently for the long longed-
for moment when the mother was to throw open the room lighted with
the Christmas tree. Here, I was sitting yesterday, until late, under the
shade of the flowering Pekca from where I watched the setting of the
sun, as its parting rays poured their richest summer effects over the
land, while to-day I was sitting in front of the huge plum-pudding that
English custom had transplanted even to these climes. Just as the
Thuringian cannot imagine a Christmas dinner without his currant bun

THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING. 227

(Wecke), the Englishman caimot conceive of one without his pluni-
puddiiig. On leaving Georgetown Mr. Fryer had thoughtfully brought
along all the ingredients for the dish, but not having yet experienced
Hamlet's genius and consequently putting no trust in it, undertook to
make one himself, a course of action that forfeited for ever the affections
of the jealous cook. Hamlet's contemptuous sniggers betrayed only too
clearly that he doubted the success of our Christmas pudding, an opinion
to which he still stuck even when the mixture, trembling like the most
delicate jelly, appeared with the remaining dishes upon the table, and
was eaten amidst the most laudatory opinions of Fryer's culinary skill.
As our men from Georgetown would have missed their Christmas pudding
just as badly as the officers of the expedition, Hamlet could at least show,
by making one for them, that his knowledge of cooking surpassed Mr.
Fryer's. Now whether he made a mistake somewhere as a result of being
over anxious, or whether while preparing it, his thoughts had wondered
down stream to his people in Georgetown where the forsaken mother
was perhaps just then preparing the holiday dinner for her children, a
thought that impressed itself so vividly upon the paternal heart as to
fill his eyes with tears — at any rate, whatever the fault, the men loudly
complained about its being hard enough to leave a hole if thrown at one's
head, all of which made our cook's vexed countenance frown still more
than before.

698. Next day my brother returned with the captains and boathands
still required to complete the crews. For navigating the Essequibo, above
the first rapids and cataracts, one dare only pick the captains amongst
those living on the river, because they not only accurately know the river-
lied with its innumerable and truly labyrinthine channels, but also alone
possess the confidence of all the Indians in the perilous work of navi-
gating it. The safety of a boat shooting down a cataract in such a
channel depends wholly and solely upon the fitness of the captain and
bowman, or leading paddler. Where the surface of the whirlpool is
peculiarly ruffled the bowman must be able to recognise the depth of
the rocks covered under water, and with a strong hand give the boat
another direction when such a hidden enemy escapes the sharp eyes of
the captain. My brother could not have had a luckier choice than among
the people living at Bartika Grove.

G99. Immediately after arrival we started distributing our effects
among the boats. The astronomical and meteorological instruments as well
as other valuable objects were entrusted to the "Louise," the remaining
supplies such as meal, rice, ham, butter, sugar, coffee, wine, spirits, and
the travelling medicine-chest to the "Victoria," and the barrels with salt
fish, pickled meat, cases of different implements and tools to the two
little boats: the "Elizabeth" on the other hand contained my gear for
preparing the botanical and zoological collections, as well as my small
boxes with ''trade." Although we had already covered with oilcloth all
the cases in which these things were enclosed, we nevertheless still spread
large tarpaulins, i.e., hempen coverings daubed with tar and paint oil,
over the whole baggage. Still deeming himself none too safe, my brother

been scared out of Bartika Grove into the forest the night before

228 TIMBER SUITABLE FOR SHIP-BUILDING.

owing to the arrival of the police boat which fortunately was not looking
for him, but had other business to attend to : its appearance there
however, had made him all the more cautious, for it was easy for a
second one to follow with a warrant of apprehension. When therefore
in the evening all the luggage had been packed in the boats he hurried
off ahead again in a corial to the farther side of the first Kapids where we
were to signal our arrival to him with two cannon shots.

700. With the firing of the Station's cannon, and our flags flying,
among which the white and black one of Prussia fluttered gaily from
the stern of the "Elizabeth" we left our pleasant host, and making our way
up the Essequibo gave an equally hearty response to the farewell of the
Bartika Grove residents which we heard from over the water that now
was as clear as a looking-glass. Once past Bartika Grove the stream
turned for a stretch of about seven miles, as far as Sacarura Point,
towards the S.S.E., and then ran an uninterrupted course of 60 miles to
the S. and S.S.E., in connection with which the Mazaruni, its tributary,
and the Demerara flowed parallel with it at distances of 12 miles west
and 15 miles east, respectively.

701. The farther we pushed our way the more luxurious became the
vegetation : along the western bank which we followed, were at the same
time to be seen certain noticeable elevations. On these rises the
friendly settlements of coloured people were everywhere visible amidst
thick groups of GuiUclma speciosa, Maximiliana rccjia and Cocos nucifera
(Coconut) which, on account of their nuts, are diligently cultivated by
the coloured folk and Indians. But these settlements also soon came to
an end, and only in isolated spots did a timber getter's establishment
make a conspicuous display from out of the lusciously verdant virgin
forest where its proprietor found unlimited scope for his industrial
activities. That Albion who rules the waves knows so little of her
treasures even up to now is particularly shewn by the fact that the
excellent timbers suitable for ship-building offered by Guiana have been
left absolutely untouched.*

702. On the following morning we reached Osterbecke Point or
Monkey's Waist, and with it at the same time the first continuous chain
of hills from the coast-line which here narrows the stream to 100 yards,
also the reason for its other name of Narrow Pass: the bed otherwise
generally possesses an average width of from 1 to 1^ miles. At Mr.
Patterson's establishment we came across the last house but one built
by European hands. Two large corials that lay at the stelling were
recognised by the coloured men as the property of Missionary Youd,
who proposed to join us here and then once again gather up around him

*— Besides the Mnraexcelxa the following genera are especially suitable for ship-building
and for timbers : Guatte.ria Oiireflou Dun., Carvocar fjlabrum Pers., Sloanea si.nemarienstix Aubl.,
Cedrela odorata Linn.. Tttpura gitiinensis Aubl., Xanlhoxulon hertnaphroditum Willd., Sidero.rylon
inprmf Linn , T£peruafalrafaK\n\)\., Tachigalia paniculata Aubl., Andira inermis Humb. Bonp.,
Dialium divaritraftim Vahl., MacroloMnm lifolium Pers., M. snh'ierncarpum Willd , Stprirtzia
t'*mento*a DeC., Pet focnrtfi mnntana Willd., P. cn.mpestris Willd., Snaansa tfivnenxin Aubl.,
Diospuro* ParaJej Steud,, Labafia pednnwtlafa Willd., Parivoa grandiflnra Aub , Minqitartia
qitfi»ensis Aubl., "Rarreria theobromaefolia Willd., and Carapa ffitianensi-t Aubl., not to mention

the large number of those that have not. even been noticed by the colonists themselves.

OSPRETS, HERONS, AND SWALLOWS. 229

at Pirara, under the protection of the military, his flocks that had been
scattered by the Brazilians: during our stay in Georgetown he had
already received the Governor's permission to do so. As we were too
far out from the bank, he was only able to join us at our next night's
camp on the other side of Cumaka-Serrima (i.e., Silkcotton Tree Point)
upon which is situate the last settlement of the coloured people.

703. We had hitherto made our way up the Essequibo expeditiously
and unchecked, but now the changed surface of the water indicated that
we should soon have obstacles to contend with. We were Hearing the
rapids of Aritaka, 0° 9' lat. N., which we had to negotiate over a stretch
of six miles. Innumerable crags, huge granite and gneiss boulders
belonging to a range of hills 200 feet high, cut their way here across the
hitherto smooth surface of the stream. It is through the sometimes
narrow, sometimes broad, intervals and spaces from 40 to 60 feet wide,
in and between these crags and boulders opposing themselves to it,
that the stream forcibly makes its way, with noise enough to stun one's
senses. A number of small islands hedged in these dangerous places,
and many leafless withered boughs of huge trees which the roaring flood-
waters above the rapids had uprooted and floated down, rose in all
directions from out the troubled waters. Numerous companies of osprey
(Halicus brasilianus 111.) and some snow-white herons (Ardea, Cocoi)
had chosen these dead trees to rest on and stared at us with inquisitive
eyes until they joined the huge crowds of swallows (Hirundo fasciata
Lath.) which noisily swarmed around us in their repeatedly revolving
flight. However interesting as a whole the landscape might be in its
mixture of pleasing and bizarre pictures, in the dull uproar of the
stream, in the huge crags of rock and in the large nnmbefr of small
islands thickly dotted with an absolutely different vegetation, we
nevertheless contemplated it writh anxiety, because we all recognised
beforehand that it would prove a hard struggle to get over this dangerous
row of rapids. We landed at one of the small islands, to bring the
corials one by one over the first of the rapids, and although we manned
every boat with a double crew they were nevertheless several times
dragged back again after already reaching the very summit: the two
large ones "Victoria" and "Louise" had to be hauled over. Though we
took several hours to negotiate these rapids they were indeed but trifles
as compared with those with which we had to contend next day. A small
island above this first series afforded us a suitable camp and as we
surmised that my brother was waiting in the neighbourhood we fired our
small mortar and heard its echo repeated a thousand times over from
the cliffs and forest.

704. The island that had been so peaceful up to now was quickly;
changed into a lively playground : the rations were distributed, a huge
circle of fires lighted up the dense leafage, the mighty blows of the axes
and cutlasses boomed heavily on all sides through the forest and indi-
cated distinctly enough that the boats' crews were hurrying up to clear
and level a spot where they could sling their hammocks. Small fires
that had been lighted beneath them threw their strong lights upon the
trembling foliage of huge trunks decorated with entwined bush-rope and.

230 SAMLET DISPLAYS Sis TALENTS.

innumerable orchids, while the white-smoke columns of alabaster seemed
to support the thick leafy roof. But the greatest stir in this picturesque
scene was centred around the large fire at the front on which were set
the big cooking pots surrounded by an everlasting change of nude black
figures : these were kept on the move not only by a desire for the contents,
but also by a number of vampires that, attracted by the dazzling lights,
were solicitously swarming around them. All wants being soon satisfied,
things began to quieten down and the tattling and singing had already
ceased when we suddenly heard paddle-strokes close by, and soon after-
wards saw fires rising on a near-lying island. It meant the arrival of
Mr. Youd with his party.

705. Violent rain-showers unfortunately wakened us some hours
later from our sound slumbers and drove us out of our hammocks which
we quickly rolled up to protect them from getting wet. In spite of all
his grumbling and vexation Hamlet had to make it convenient to follow
our example and boil the coffee. After drinking a cup or two, the dark
clouds finally lifted from his brow, his cheeriness quickly returned and
the previous worry over his wife and child seemed at last to be dispelled :
indeed, his temporary ill-humour passed so completely into a stage exactly
the opposite that he whiled away the time for ns until morning by singing
and dancing, talents of which he had not let us have any inkling during
the whole of the first trip.

706. After once more notifying my brother, at daybreak, of our
arrival by firing the mortar, and shouting our morning greeting to Mr.
Youd who was also preparing to strike camp, our little squadron resumed
its way until a second rocky barrier abruptly interrupted its course.
We had been able to cross the first one with loaded boats, but here we
had to discharge cargo, cany the baggage overland, and haul up the
emptied vessels over the falls by rope, a labour that from now onwards
had to be renewed almost daily. Noon was long past when we finally
tied the last boat to the water-side bushes beyond the summit and could
again load cargo. A small bend of the river concealed the view, and
hardly had we paddled round it than at a short distance right ahead,
we saw my brother's camp upon a small sandbank, but at the same
time, in the background, a madly rushing mass of foaming water. As
our strength had been already severely taxed, and the difficulties still to
be overcome were so enormous, we should hardly have got a single boat
through the whirlpool to-day, and accordingly postponed making the
attempt until the morrow.

707. This intermission before the later evening hours was all the
more convenient as I could now admire at leisure the flora as yet
unknown to me, on the rocky islands and in between the crags, and make
the most of them for my collection. Everything was new, in every plant
I noted some form not yet seen, the Orchid family even greeting me with
new species. If the growth between and upon the granite crags was not
so luxuriant as in the area of the lower river, it was nevertheless equally

THE POISON TREE OF THE CREOLES. 231

as interesting.! Among such for ine was that generally feared Hippo*
inane Manicclla Linn., or Poison Tree of the Creoles, abundantly loaded
with its yellow ripe fruit resembling our apple, the exterior of which is
indeed very inviting, but when eaten causes acute intestinal inflammation
and inevitably fatal results : the milky sap of the tree is so acrid that it
soon blisters the epidermis.

70S. Day broke and with it the fatiguing and perilous work com-
menced. The whole wide stretch upon which tiie released musses of
water nustered and foamed had to be contended with, and there were
spots along it at which the most undaunted \vouid have doubted their
success. Amongst the most dangerous must be especially noted the
enormous Itaballi Cataract which was alike conspicuous for its height
and the large number of rocky boulders facing the force of the current.
At a cataract of this nature there are only two ways of bringing the
corials over the top, both equally tiring, if not always equally unsafe.
But here both were combined. We had, for instance, only the choice of
discharging the boats and carrying the baggage on our backs across the
mile-long lieaped-up giant rubble-stone which, owing to the extra-
ordinary smoothness and inequality of the boulders, was as difficult as
it was dangerous, or to haul the vessels over with ropes. The latter
means was chosen. At huge falls like these the immense quantity of
water that rushes headlong down over the dark cliff forms at their base
large eddies and whirlpools into which the liberated element blusters
into angry billows and engulfs everything so long as it can only seize it.
A broad border of white foam indicates the limits within which the
violent commotion of impassioned waves threatens danger. The boat is
still swaying gently outside the treacherous area upon the water rolling
peacefully from it — the crew has already left, and only the captain
remains silent and rigid with the steering paddle in his powerful grip
as he critically watches the piled-up mass of water. He once more tries
the knot with which one end of a strong rope is tied into an iron bracket
at the bow, its other being held in the hand of the best swimmer in the,
ship's company. These men suddenly jump into the torrent on the outer
border of the whirlpool, lise up again, and carried by a side current,
come up once more until after a long struggle they reach one of the
exposed rocks. Yet the real fixed spot that they must try and gain lies
still farther up, the dangerous dive has to be risked once more, the
point is at last reached and a loud shout announces the victory. The
captain now directs the bow of the vessel straight towards the wildest
whirlpool and, while the swimmers are hauling on to the rope with all
their might, does his very best to keep the boat in this direction. It is all
right, — the top is reached, — the boat, still trembling, wobbles here and

t— The most prominent representatives included the beautiful Marhaerium
Booth., M. nervoaum Vogel, Antonia pilosa. Benth.. Aeschynomene sensitiva Swart I. A.panicvfafa.
Willd., DiocJea lasiocarpa Mart., D. guianensis Benth., Mat*nea sarmentosa Aubl., Licania
t-oriacei Benth., L, divaricata Benth.. Pithf.cololium trapezifolium Benth., several lovely Tnq/i
as I. fforihunda Benth., /. pJaft/carpn Benth. and I. sapid a Humb. Bonp.. Sv-arfzia grandiflora
Benth., Hirtella panii-ulat* Swartz., H. eriandra Benth., Tachiaalia pnbiftora Benth.,— all of
them, plants that I did not come across on the lower coastal reaches.

232 How TO CLIMB A CATAHACT.

there as the captain steers it out of the real rush on to the crag, where
the brave swimmers are stationed : these j dinp into it as quick as
lightning, put all their strength into their paddles and try to cut
through the stream that is rushing down with the speed of an arrow : this
also is accomplished and the vessel, with whatever it contains, is saved.
But woe, if on hauling the vessel up, the captain does not keep it in the
right direction or if, on ploughing through the stream, the strength of the
paddlers and his own ready skill are unable to withstand the strength
of the current! — without any chance of escape the vessel shoots broad-
side down the fall and a few fragments emerging on the farther side
of the foam indicate its destruction. Though the novice is already
timorous when the corial is being hauled and his fear is ever and always
increased afresh lest the knot should give, or the warp refuse to stand
the strain, his anxiety is nevertheless first raised to its highest pitch
when the boat reaches the top, the paddlers jump in, and their struggle
against the strength of the current begins. In this struggle between life
mid death the vessel often stays still for minutes as if rooted to the spot,
a cry of agony rings from out the anxious breast, every muscle of the
contestants stands out prominent with its superhuman effort, the eye is
steadfastly fixed on the threatening rock — for if the rushing torrent
seizes the corial or drags it but an inch out of its course towards the
destructive abyss, no power can then save it from being smashed to
pieces. But the feeling of oppression is over, the paddlers have won,
and the canoe is cradled safely in the fairway. I was only too often
menaced to-day with many a similar anxious moment that makes all the
difference between life and death, and yet this exciting method of pro-
ceeding, this furious combat with the element also had its interesting
and extremely fascinating side. One lot of men can be seen here
trying with truly admirable skill to swim to an exposed crag : the brown
faces with their mouths just out of water on which their spread-out
long black hair is floating, change their direction all of a twinkling,
momentarily disappear in a foaming wave and finally burst into bright
laughter when the slippery crust of the rock threatens to make its
climbing impossible. But no one gives up the attempt until the very
last man has secured a foothold : in the meantime, those that were the
first to reach have already again ploughed their way through the water to
a crag farther on, where the rope is now thrown to them with equal skill.
Another party, cheerful and gay the while, bends under the heavy weight
of the baggage and laughs at every false step on the awful road over
innumerable rocks and rubble. The terrible uproar of the uncurbed
current keeps our strenuous efforts company with its deafening din, the
glowing tropical sun sheds its warmth over this wildly sublime scenery
and forms thousands of rainbows upon the spluttering and bubbling
waters, while the swarms of quizzing swallows in their zig-zag flight, the
variously coloured processions of noisy macaws and parrots screeching
through the air, and the humming-birds that, sporting like lightning
sparks in the flower-calyces of Tillandsiac or Clusiae growing out from
between the crevices of the rocks, constitute a scene as enchanting as it is
attractive. This rich wealth of the most wanton natural conditions

SNAIL-SHELLS INVARIABLY DAMAGED. 233

prevents all gloomy thoughts arising concerning the same dangers that
threaten us on our return: the charni of the moment captivates the
Present, and crowds out all sombre fancies of the Future. Wherever the
eye turns it meets with fresh surprises. Here a mighty current rushes
in between the rocky cliffs to disappear as if by magic into an unnoticed
gulf : there a huge mass of water is ever on the whirl in a funnel-shaped
cauldron formed of giant boulders. In the streaks formed of sticky mud
that no downpour of rain, no amount of sunshine, can remove, these
rocks show trace of the various water-levels for thousands of years past.
Often a giant tree- trunk, long since dead, that has been brought and left
here at high water, crowns one of these boulders until perhaps after
the lapse of several years a yet higher flood carries it farther. On the
washed-down earth in the rifts and clefts that only an exceptional flood
can reach, there develops a luxuriant flora that covers the sombre rocks
with the loveliest flowery garlands.t Hundreds of beautiful Vochysiae
displaying their glowing yellow colours, and innumerable scarlet-red
blossoms of creeping Norantea guianensis hemmed in the horribly wild
and yet so enchantingly lovely scenery. I found a number of pretty
snails, Melania, sticking on to the granite crags immediately below the
surface of the water, but it would have been trouble spent in vain to
search for a single undamaged specimen amongst the innumerable
quantities, — all were mutilated, and several turns of the pointed whorls
were broken off in every one.* Just as the rocks below were dotted with
these molluscs, so were those above it, as well as the river-side trees,
festooned with a similarly countless number of small bats. When
approaching these animals and scaring them away, as the Indians
particularly did very often, they suddenly flew off, rushed a few times
here and there over the surface of the water, but then always returned
back to the spot where originally found. I saw these wonderful
creatures hanging- head down not only upon the northern aspects of the
trees and rocks, but also in full glare of the sunshine.

709. We did not, however, get over the Itaballi Falls without losing
something, and out* joy when all the boats, including the smallest, rode
safe in the fairway beyond the top, was somewhat premature because
the current demanded this very one as a victim. Fortunately, the corial
only contained two barrels of pickled meat that had been left for ballast,
and as the accident occurred before reaching the whirlpool, its captain,
who was an accomplished swimmer, yet managed to save it. The pro-
visions were of course lost, though we were very glad there had been no
fatality and that we still had our boat, the loss of which would have put
us in a tight corner.

710. Our hope of camping at some spot far remote from the dull

booming of the Falls was unfortunately not to be gratified, for the

• •

t — These include Evflenia svbobliqua Bentli., Pxidium aqiiaficum. P. parvifl-orvm Benth.,
P. aromaiicum Aubl., Couepia cnmesa Benth., Ittfft di.xfi.cka Benth.. 7. adianfifolia Humb. Bonp.,
I.umbellifera De.C, Chomelia anrjushfolia B^nth., Amphymenium Jt.ohrii Humb. Bonp., Drepano-
carpus inundatus Mart., Leptolohium nitenit Vogel. Kyptis ipicata Poit.. H. Parkerii Benth., H. rr-
curvata Poit., Oerardia hiftpidula Mart., Torenia parviflora Hamilt , Beyrirhia ocymoides Chamiss.
Schlcht., Bacopa aqua/iea Aubl., Meloi-hia Zanceolata Benth., M, arenosa Benth.

* From the hundreds which I have examined in varying degrees of destruction, I am
inclined to the belief that the damage is due to organic, and not inorganic, causes, (Ed.)

234 THE PACU MAKES ITS APPEARANCE.

shades of night were already falling fast by the time we had only reached
the foot of the Aliaro Falls with which the first series of the Essequibo
rapids come to an end. It was impossible to negotiate these cataracts
to-day, and having advanced barely four miles since sunrise in spite of
the most determined efforts, we had to bow to the inevitable and pitch
our camp on a sandbank at their foot. A boundless supply of the most
tasty fish the Guiana rivers ever sheltered compensated us at least in
part for the loss suffered in our provisions. This was the Mylctcs Pacu,
Jard., only found within the area of the falls because its favourite food,
the Lac's flwiattiis Willd. and other Podostemeae, which the Indians
call Weyra or Huiya, grow on the submerged rocks. Pacu is the Indian
name of the fish.

711. As soon as the waters begin to fall in the river after the rainy
season, the Pacu makes its appearance at the first series of cataracts, and
the coloured people of the Essequibo and Mazaruni commence tlr.jir
fishing trips. When salted and dried on the rocky boulders, the fish
constitutes a considerable article of trade in Georgetown. As nets
cannot be cast in between the rocks, use is made of a bait, especially the
fruits of the mucu-inucu (Caladium arborescens) which are thrown one
by one into the stream: on the Pacu rising after the tempting morsel,
it is hit by the never-erring arrow of the skilful fisher. A man who
knows how to use his bow and arrow can easily kill from 80 to 100 per
day. It is a strange phenomenon that below or between the falls of the
Essequibo and Mazaruni one never finds the fry of the Pacu : the Indians
and coloured folk explain this by the fact that during the rainy season
when almost all the rivers overflow their banks the fish betake themselves
to the savannahs of the upper Essequibo, where their eggs are laid, and
then return to their long-missed favourite food on the granite dams of
the cataracts. The fry does not appear to risk the raging waters of the
falls and rapids until arrived at a size and strength sufficient to with-
stand the force of the foaming waves. Mr. Hilhouse, known by the
account of his travels on the Mazaruni, says that there "By poisoning
the water at the rapids I have come into possession of thousands of fish,
partly Pacu, partly finger-long fry of other river-dwellers, but I never
found Pacu among them that measured less than twelve inches."* This
observation seems to confirm absolutely the statement of the Indians and
coloured people. The female has a darker colouring than the male, and
possesses besides differently constructed stern fins. While grazing on
the Lads and other Podostemeae it lies on one side, the most favourable
position for it on account of the shape of its mouth.

712. Hardly had we arrived within the district where the Weyra grew,
than the sharp eyes of our Indians and other boathands sighted the highly
treasured fish, and as soon as we landed at the camping place, several
good shots, whom I accompanied, hurried off in the corial with a view
to supplying our supper table with a dainty dish. My people were quite

"Journal of a Voyage up the Massaroony in 1831. By William Hilhouse : read before the
R.G S. London 1833.

WEATHER CHANGE-LIMITS. 235

in their element here : the best of the lot took his place in the bows and
hardly had his practised vision recognised the fish shooting past like
lightning than the arrow was let fly, remained trembling a few seconds
perpendicularly with the surface, and then disappeared. • This was a
sure sign that the animal must be of considerable size, because on account
of its strength and speed only especially heavy arrows can be used in its
capture. Everything now depends on not letting a moment slip when
the arrow shows again: as this occurs an Indian ready to jump, imme-
diately plunges into the water and seizes it; should he miss and it sink
once more into the depths, fish and arrow are generally lost, particularly
when there is a second rapid in the vicinity which it will attempt to
reach and '""shoot with the current. Within a short while we caught
seven, of which some were 20, others 27 inches long, and weighed from
5 to 10 Ibs. Hamlet had taken all measures to prepare them as tastily
as possible and his culinary skill was heartily appreciated.

713. Owing to the situation of our camp not admitting of Mr. Youd
spending the night with us here, he had pitched his a short distance
away. When evening fell, the singing of the Indians, with whom he
every morning held service, was wafted over to us: suddenly dving away
as if swallowed in the raging uproar of the rushing torrents, it just as
quickly rang out again in voices bright and clear, until at last we only
heard the dull thunder of the stream that sang us a wild slumber-song
through the stillness of the night.

714. Anxious to be off by early sunrise so as to sling our hammocks
in the evening on the farther side of Aharo, the last rapids of the first
series, everybody was up and doing in our camp long before daybreak.
Once over this first series we could then count on a smooth trip for at
least a few days until the second series should offer new troubles and
dangers.

715. We had left Georgetown with the entrance of the short rainy
season and as far as the first rapids, had experienced its effects: these
nevertheless appeared to constitute the meteorological change-limit of
weather (Wettcrscheide) for since yesterday hardly a drop more rain
fell and the continuance of the loveliest weather favoured our journey
up the Essequibo.

716. Having at last got over the Aharo Falls all right we proceeded
peacefully and serenely up the Essequibo which seemed to have quite
altered its appearance once more. Below the Falls it was covered with
innumerable small islands: above them we everywhere came upon a
number of more or less considerable sandbanks, which forced us to take
a continual zig-zag course. I could quite understand the boathands'
shouts of delight in which I joined with all my heart after we had
crossed the falls: but I could not puzzle out at first the similar rejoicings
with which the sandbanks were greeted until several of the Indians,
before even the corials touched land, sprang impatiently into the river,
swam to one of them, suddenly started scraping up the sand, and
brought out a quantity of egjys. The laying season of the turtles had
commenced, a time which the Indians look forward to with just as much
gusto as do our German gourmets to the flight of the woodcock, or to the

236 HUNTING FOR TURTLE EGGS.

first consignment of fresh oysters. Hardly had the remaining Indians
noticed this than they all plunged into the water and followed suit. I
verily believe their appetite was so keen that had the voluntary desertion
from their ships been punishable by death, this would not have deterred
them from swimming to the sandbanks that hid the tasty eggs. When T
got acquainted with this celebrated dainty, I was able to appreciate their
passion for it. What are our much vaunted plovers' eggs as compared
with a turtle's? Although this delicacy has already been so often
described with the liveliest admiration by those who have enjoyed it,
why should I not add mine to these innumerable testimonials? Making
its way from 80 to about 140 paces inland on these sandbanks, the turtle
rakes a hole, deposits its eggs, covers them with sand and then returns to
the water. The inexperienced European would exert himself for long
in vainly searching for the eggs, while, in exploiting this treasure-trove
for himself alone, he would gain but little without the assistance of the
Indians : the trained son of the forest, however, is rarely deceived, and
hardly ever removes the sand from a spot without immediately finding the
eggs beneath. A slight wavy rise on the sandy flat betrays the situation
of the nest, a sign that we did not learn to differentiate until it multi-
plied itself so often in the course of the days that we recognised isolated
sandbanks the whole surface of which had a wavy outline. The white
of the egg which does not harden by boiling, but remains quite fluid, is
allowed to run off, only the tasty and nourishing yolk being eaten. Kaw
yolks mixed with sugar and a few drops of rum afforded us an excellent
dessert that had a surprising resemblance to the finest Marzipan.
Amongst the innumerable turtle which, during our river trip, were seen
within the area of the sandbanks, I was able to distinguish but two
species. The Indians called the larger one Casipan which is probably
the Emys Ama-zonica of von Martius, and also seems to be the Testudo
Arrua of von Humboldt. It rakes an often two-feet deep excavation in
the sand wherein it lays from 100 to 120 round eggs supplied with a
parchment-like covering. A smaller kind, probably Emyx Tracajd of
von Martins synonymous with von Humboldt's Testudo Tcrekai/, lays
but 18 to 19 oval eggs in a hole at most a foot deep. In the Amazon
stream, Martins gives the laying season for October and November; in
the Orinoco, according to Humboklt, it falls in March, whereas in the
Essequibo, on the contrary, it commences witn January and lasts at
most until the beginning of February. This difference in the laying
season certainly appears to be intimately connected with the varying
commencement of the rainy season within the limits of the three river-
basins, and Nature has instilled into these creatures that wonderful
instinct whereby they deposit their eggs during that favourable period
when the sun, before the entrance of the heavy rainy season, can still
complete their hatching. The size of the young turtle is the surest
indication to the Indians for the early or still delayed commencement of
the tropical winter: for when these, after crawling out, hasten to the
water, one can reckon with certainty that the rainy season is at hand.
On the Orinoco this commences in the middle of April, on the Amazon
in February, and on the upper Essequibo usually at the end of April,

NEW YEAR'S EVE CELEBRATIONS. 237

Forty days after the egg is laid the youngster breaks the parchment
envelope and slips out.

717. Besides turtle-eggs our Indians also now and again found some
tests of the tasty lizard, Iguana tubcrculata Laur., close to the edge of
the forest. The eggs are much smaller than those of the turtle, and it
only rarely happens that more than 14 are found in one nest : they surpass
the turtle eggs by far and in Georgetown are delicacies very much sought
after. The real laying season of the Iguana appears to fall at the end
of October, because its eggs are found most abundantly at this period
of the year.

718. After our boathands had gorged themselves with eggs we
resumed our journey and soon recognised Gluck Island, some 5 miles long,
rising ahead. The Caribs call it Aramisari Irupacu, a name that it has
received from a small tiger-cat that was plentiful here in former days.
Immediately opposite its southern spit, the Essequibo is joined by the
Tipuri, its most important tributary we had met since the mouth of
the Cuyuni. The generally characteristically flat banks below the first
series of cataracts had already increased here to a general height of from
ten to twelve feet : they consist of a mixture of sand and loam, which in
some spots lie over one another in regular layers and have a light but
generally fertile covering of mould overgrown with the most luxuriant
vegetation. A trough-like cavity runs immediately behind and quite
parallel with the margins of the banks : it is probably produced by the
waters receding after the end of the wet season.

719. The extraordinary appearance of the high steep clayey banks
aroused our undivided attention. The most suitable description to
apply to this perforated wall would be a cullender: thousands of round
holes of the most varied sizes dotted its flat surface, and I learnt from
the Indians with not a little surprise that they contained nests of Alcedo,
the kingfisher, and as a matter of fact all the species that I met on the
Essequibo seemed to have established a hatching colony in perfect
harmony here. I saw the Alcedo torguata, the Alcedo Amazona Lath.,
'A. superciliosa Linn., A. bicolor Linn. Gm., and A. Americana Linn. Gm.,
slipping out of those holes, the size of which everywhere corresponded
with the size of the species. As the holes were of considerable depth I
could not observe whether the birfls were still brooding: the continuous
flying out and in of the old ones nevertheless led us to believe that they
were already feeding their youn#.

720. Being New Year's Eve we could not think of spending it
without the usual celebrations, it having proved a day of the most frightful
anxiety, particularly for me, the year before. We accordingly pitched
camp on a broad sandbank somewhat earlier than what had been custom-
ary at ordinary times. Kegularly at 4 o'clock, for instance, we were
accustomed to pick a comfortable place, so that, for a few hours before
nightfall, the hunters could rove through the forest and the fishers make
a haul which, ever since reaching the rapids and sandbanks, was never
made in vain. As soon as the boats were tied and the crews released,
each one went about his business: only within the limits of the sand-
banks w^ere everybody wanted to make sure beforehand of a supply of

23S FELLOW-TRIBESMEN CAMP TOGETHER.

turtle eggs for himself was this strict system somewhat relaxed. After
this was done, and the eggs found, one lot hurried along the banks to cut
posts for the tents, another looked for dry firewood — because Hamlet,
the cook, would be extremely annoyed if, on his arrival, there was not
sufficient on hand to light the (ires for his pots and pans — while the
hunters took their weapons, sojne of the fishers their bows and arrows,
and others of them their fishing-lines which they cast at suitable spots.
Suddenly the full round note of the signal-horn would sound and the
men chosen for the purpose hurry to the corial with drinking-cups, pots
and dishes, to fetch the rations of rice, rum, and so on, which on this
particular day were distributed less carefully than usual : the boathands'
cook would return with his heavily-laden ministering subordinates to
the big cauldron under which a mighty fire already blazed, and his
powerful stentorian voice, when the food was cooked, would call the
scattered coloured folk to come and take their share: in short, order
reigned everywhere, every move was orderly. For the rest, it is an
extraordinary phenomenon that Indians of different tribes when asso-
ciated on a journey never eat nor sling their hammocks close together,
every tribe making its own separate camp so that when, later on, our
companions included Warraus, Akawais, Macusis, and Caribs, we were
surrounded with a little township where the residents were separated
from one another into four areas. The blazing fires spread themselves
out in all directions underneath the earthen pots which now contained
an iguana, sometimes a fish, or again a monkey. Then, during the
journey upstream or after landing, every Indian tried to add
some special tit-bit to his rations : the salt fish on the contrary which
did not seem to be appreciated, was only used in cases of extreme
necessity. In fine weather the Indians and coloured hands contented
themselves with fixing posts into the sandbanks and slinging their
hammocks upon them or else upon the trees at the edge of the forest,
but when rain seemed to threaten they rigged up at a moment's notice
a number of small benabs which they covered with palm leaves, or
leaves of the Ravcnala (juiancnxis Rich. One must himself have l>een
witness of such scenes to be able to sketch an accurate picture of them :
the hurry and bustle of the people, the primeval sublimity of the-
surroundings, the solemn darkness of the night and the cheering twinkle
of the stars — everything is so combined as to give the whole a charm
which is as artistic as it is bizarre. But the beauty of the spectacle is
intensified when, through the veil of a somewhat clouded sky, the moon
sheds her magic light over the landscape, to fringe the majestic stream
with a silver border, and to bring into prominence the gloom of the
sharply defined forest-clad islands, when the banks adjacent to the
gentle ripples sparkling in the sheen sadly cast their darkened shadows
far into the silvery water and form a glaring contrast with the blazing
fires and Indian figures now showing up and now lost to sight. Such
was the scene that met my gaze on the last evening of the year. The
lively voices, the ringing songs of the coloured people, and the outbursts
of laughter were stilled, the busy figures disappeared, the fires died out,
and a dead calm spread over the previous activities of tbe camp. Other

THE GOATSUCKERS* WARNING. 239

voices then awakened in my vicinity : for closely following on the happy
celebrations there fell upon my ears the agonising cry of suffering from
the different species of goat-suckers which, perched upon the bare
exposed branches of trees sunk beneath the water, voiced their groans
of lamentation across the silence of the moon-light night. These dull
notes are indeed so melancholy and uncanny that I could quite under-
stand why people light shy and are so afraid of these creatures: no
Indian, no Negro, no Creole of the coast dare point a gun at these birds,
in which the first recognises the servant of the Evil Being, Yawahu, and
his sorcerers, the second the messengers of the bad spirit Jumbi, and the
third the certain prophecy of a death within the house, as Water-ton*
has so charmingly described in his ''Wandering's." Now I recognised from
yonder trees or from the neighbouring waterside the wailing ''ka-ka-ha-
ka-ha-ka-ha" tkat commenced with a clear full note and gradually died
away in a sob, and then the "Wko-are you, who, wko-are-you?" uttered
in anxious haste, and now again the dull imperious "Work-away-work-
work-work-away," while in the next moment a voice, replete with the
utmost weariness of life, implored "Willy-come-go-Willy-Willy-Willy-
come-go," and a fifth wailed "Wkip-poor,-Wkip-wkip-wkiprwkip-
poon Will," until suddenly the piercing shriek of a monkey that had been
disturbed in its sleep or caught by a tiger-cat rang out from the gloomy
forest. Wakened by the death-cry of this creature its mates joined in tke
wail of agony, tke wkole forest rose in tumult, and one keard tke jumping
of tke frigktened pack from tree to tree, till tkis kubbub likewise
gradually faded away into tke distance and tke upset in tke stillness of
tke nigkt subsided. Up to tke present I kad listened quietly to these
different sounds, and watcked tke fligkt of owls and bats swaying over
tke surface of tke water, but now a long drawn-out uncanny growl
frigktened me out of my reveries, and as it seemed to indicate tke
presence of a jaguar on tke prowl, I kastened to wake my neighbour.
The terribly menacing roar which re-echoed a thousand times in tke
forest confirmed my fears wken, awakened by my call, a number of tke
sleepers jumped out of their hammocks. New Year's morning skewed
us distinct tracks upon tke many different patks along wkick the fearful
creature must have prowled round our camp.

721. After commencing tke day with Divine Service in the course
of wkick Mr. Youd gave us an excellent sermon exactly suited to tke
occasion, we spent tke rest of tke time in fishing and hunting. I kave
already considered wortky of praise tke certainty with wkick tke
coloured fplk and Indians, in spite of tke optical illusion caused by
refraction of tke image, manage to kit tke fish, and will now only
describe kere quite a peculiar arra-ngement as regards tkeir arrows witk
wkick fisk other than tke Myletes are killed. Tkese arrows carry a
powerfully barbed tip, possessing a kollowed-out base into wkick tke
extremity of tke arrow-shaft passes. A thin but strong string is attacked
at its one end to tkis iron tip and at its otker to tke skaft, on to wkick,

* " Wanderings in South America," by Charles Watertpu,

240 PECULIAR PRACTICE FOR ATTRACTING FISH,

however, it is lightly wound. As soon as the creature is struck, the
arrow-tip remains where it is, but is released off the shaft, from which
the string at the same time becomes unrolled, when the fish dives below.
The shaft floating on the surface of the water shows where the catch is
hiding. The Caribs and Macusi Indians call this kind of arrow Sara-
racca. Equal dexterity is also exhibited in the use of fishing*- lines. As
each species of many of the fish generally requires a particular bait, the
Indian, after gazing with critical eye at the occupants swimming here
and there below, throws out his hook, supplied writh the very bait that
the fish which he exactly wants for his table is especially partial to. A
rod is only rarely used for the purpose. With practised hand he throws
his line and now feels every nibble till finally a stronger tug tells him
that it is time to pull on it. In the still water where the banks have a
steep slope, particularly in those spats where its surface is strongly
lighted up with the sunshine, were usually found collected a number of
beautiful sunfish, the Luganani of the coloured people, Cichla ocellaris
Bloch., C: argus Hurnb., which seldom escaped the arrows of the Indians.
A peculiar practice for attracting fish consists in this that when the
fishermen use a rod and so throw the line into the water, they whip the
surface many times with it. The fish seem to take this noise for fruits
falling from the trees and will snap greedily at every object they meet.
Our German anglers would be afraid of such a. noise frightening them
away and, judging from the piscatorial experiences of my own youth,
they would not be far wrong. Probably the American fish are less smart
than the Teuton ones! Extra excitement was afforded in camp every
time one of the giant sweet-water fish, a Laulau, or some large sheat-fish
was caught on the night-lines; for the rest, it required special skill to
land the ungainly creature. Several of the Siluroids, particularly the
Pacaruima (Phractocephalus bicolor), make a noise as soon as they are
pulled out and then, with thick clubs, done to death: this sound is so
peculiar that one can even distinguish at a distance whether the catch is
a laulau, a pakaruima or some other species of Silurus.

722. During the afternoon while strolling along the riverbank with
some Indians, one of them drew my attention to an object on the opposite
shore: I took it to be an old tree trunk, but on my sharp sighted hunter
jokingly advising me with a smile to bring out my "second eye" (pocket
telescope) I recognised it to be a huge kaiman, which was warming itself
in the scorching sun. A hunting party was quickly made up: the small
boats soon emptied of their baggage, manned and freighted with rifles,
guns, and pistols: we divided ourselves, one corial was to go upstream
above, and the other to cut across below the brute. Although the Indians
again chaffed us about our preparations and suggested our staying
quietly where we were because the kaiman was far too smart and would
certainly make its escape, they did not deter us from our purpose. Zeal
added wings to the paddlers though to our great disappointment the
reptile slowly withdrew into the water as we got to within 300 paces of
it. I often had the opportunity subsequently of watching the same shy
timidity of the kaiman on lane],

PICTURESQUE PATCHES OF FOLIAGE. 241

723. On the morning of the 2nd January \ve resumed our up-river
Journey. The next island that we came to was Hubucuni, where the
river had a width of 1,520 yards, just as at the same time the Arissaro
Mountains came into vie\\ towards South half -East. The Cortuahara
and Mucu-Mucu empty themselves into the Essequibo, on its eastern bank
from which a much frequented trail branches off in a south-easterly
direction to station Seba on the Demerara which must be about 20 miles
distant as the crow flies.

724. If in times to come the opening up of the country should
advance farther inland, the Cortuahara and another small stream, the
Coreta which flows into the Demerara, would then offer the most suitable
highwayf of civilisation: the dangerous obstacle of the Itaballi Rapids
could thus be avoided.

725. The luxuriance of vegetation that had already become apparent
after passing the Aritaka Falls, aroused my keenest admiration on
approaching the Arissaro Mountains. J ust as on the upper Barima, an
aimost impenetrable virgin forest reigned over the whole, and behind
the immediate hemmed-in river edges that, in the most delightful play of
colour, formed truly picturesque patches of foliage, there rose hill upon
hill, each of them draped with the vast wealth of a profusely tropical
growth, and shaded by Mora excelsa, those giant Mimosae of the torrid
Zone. We gazed on this glorious picture with the deepest wonder: Oh,
what a charm would be cast over our northern landscapes by such a
group of trees with their changing tints of foliage ! Oh, for only a patch
of forest composed of Mora cxcelsa, the leafless Jacaranda procera Spr.
with its numberless blue blossoms, the stately Martia excelsa Benth. and
its dark yellow floral embellishment, all associated with the delicate
yellow of the Vochysia guianensis Aubl. interwoven in the glowing red
of Elisabetha coccinea Schomb. with the scarlet enamelling of the
climbing Norantea (juiancnsis and threaded by all the ravishing colour-
tints of numerous Bic/noniaceac] and Passiflora ! Each stroke of the
paddle brought new and more surprises* before my astonished gaze:
every bend unfolded a fresh and more delightful picture before my
enraptured vision, while every tree, every bush, every blossom seemed to
say "Stranger, keep our memory green : in faivy fancy ever free take us
with you to your homeland where the blossoms of our brothers droop
beneath the winter's icy breath, and when the cold ingratitude of Life
destroys the many hopes you set upon your Future, fly on the pinions of
remembrance back to us!" Yes, even to-day the memory of those
times of inexpressible enjoyment still abides within my inmost soul along
side the full fascination of the Present, and serves to brighten many
a sorrowful hour. Not only did the vegetable world alone unfold its

--------- - • • ' - ^

t Compare the site of the present Demerara-Essequibo Railway — (Ed).

* Among those still partly unknown to me and to Botany in general I would mention
hut a few : CaJi/nfhrttnfex obtu.ta Benth.. Clidemia elegan* Don., Outea acaeiaefolia Benth.,
Cassia moxchafa Hnmb. Bonp., C. baciUaris Linn., C. flexuosa. Linn., C. litifolia Benth.,
Spennera rlichofoma~Renth., S. dixophylla Benth., 5 JafifoHa Meyer., Lisianftius gracilix Griesb
Hibiscus bicornin Meyer., Paronia typhalea Car , Aeschynomene ciliafa Vog., Ckrysobalarfifs
pellocarpus Meyer, etcr

24)2 THE SNAKE-BIRD is OUTWITTED.

Bonders, but the most brilliant and interesting representatives of the
sister one likewise had their homes here. Several species of Jacamar
(Galbula) among which Galbula grandis Lath., and Cr. flavirostris were
specially conspicuous, were to be seen perched upon the overhanging
branches of mighty trees with an air of silent contemplation until the
close approach of an all too daring or imprudent insect would make them
fly off as quick as thought, only to return with it to their previous roost.
The red-polled Tanagra gularis Linn, hopped busily and sprightly
through the bushes overhanging the water. The less the Galbula let
itself be disturbed in its pensive meditations on the approach of human
beings, the more shy and cautious was the Snake-bird (Plotus anhinga
Linn.) for which reason it only rarely happened that a hunter
could get within gunshot. It usually picks a spot upon trees which,
undermined by the water, bend themselves far over the stream, a stand-
point whence it can observe its would-be captor just as well up or down
stream and so can fly away long before he can come within range. As
the appearance of the slightest object upon the otherwise unfrequented
water already claims its attention a long way off, I based my method of
catching it upon this everlasting watch that it set upon our corials.
iWhen at last I saw the Plotns in the far distance I climbed on to the
land where the bank permitted of my eo doing and sneaked on to it
slowly and cautiously all the time that its attention was directed on
the corials until it knew by the shot that it had been outwitted: but
even then T only got possession of the bird if it were killed outright.
Were this not the case it rushed itself with the speed of an arrow into
the water, dived below, and was only rarely to be seen again. It usually
swam below the surface of the bushy bank, where it. stuck its pointed
hill and little head with brilliant eyes warily out of the water, but imme-
diately ducked again if it did not think the coast clear: it prudently
remained always within cover of the overhanging bushes where it rightly
felt itself safer than in the open. When swimming after its food, it is
only the thin snake like neck and small head that are exposed : this
continual movement of the head as the creature cuts its way through the
smooth water forms quite a peculiar sight. Equally as skilful divers as
the Plotus are the ospreys '{Carbo Lac., H aliens 111.) that are indigenous
here. We frequently found whole flocks of the scissor-bill (Rhynchops)
perched together upon the immediate river-edge of the sandbanks, or else
flying in long rows one behind the other just over the water, the surface
of which they would be ploughing up with their sharp bills. It was^a
surprise to me to find this coastal bird so far inland : I met with it still
even on the Rupununi. The sea-swallows, Sterna magnirostris Licht.,
iudctfng from their nests that the Indians found on the sandbanks, were
likewise plentiful here : in no nest did we find more than two eggs which
were the size of that of our plovers.

726. On January 5th we reached the 600-foot high Arissaro Moun-
tains which we had already seen in the distance the day before. They
stretch from East to West and belong to the granite series: some 16
miles farther on the approximately 200-foot high granite chain of tbe

AN IMPENETRABLE PINE-APPIE THICKET. 213

, making its way along the eastern bank, diverts the river, coming
here from the .West, entirely to the North, the course of which it follows
some 40 miles throughout. The two rivers, the Demerara and Essequibo,
are at their closest here as the intervening distance must amount to only
about 8 miles. Five miles farther up we hit the approximately 200-foot
high granite chain of Oumaia, which again deflects the river to the
eastward, forming here the sharpest bend in its entire course.

727. The pleasure which the smooth and tranquil stream with its
wildly romantic and fertile banks had so far afforded us, was unfor-
tunately to be soon dimmed. Hitherto, the charming riverside scenery
with its 80 to 100-foot high wall-like fringe of vegetation, exactly
resembled a giant hedge trimmed with shears, where, in addition to the
creepers previously mentioned, one could distinguish the beautiful Petrea
voluMJis with almost foot-long flower-bunches, the glorious Clitoria
Poiteaui DeC., Echites insignis Sp., Phaseolus lasiocarpns Mart., Securid-
aca marginata Benth., and Cacoucia coccinea Aubl., while the resulting
fairy flower-carpet beamed with all and every colour in which the pretty
Catyptrion Aubletii, together with the new species C. nitidnm, and the
equally new Combrctum ourantiacum Benth. stood pre-eminent. Now,
however, the view soon became changed again into its former one of
chaotic confusion of wave and rock. The menacing thunder of the
second series of cataracts of Cumaka and Akramallali also resounded
from the far distance through the virgin forests. We managed to get
over them all right and picked a camp on an island that was so thickly
covered with pineapples that cutlass and axe were necessary to clean up
a free space. The long saw-edged leaves formed -at all events an im-
penetrable thicket as if intended to protect the small miserable looking
but usually aromatic fruits; though, in spite of this, the largest propor-
tion of them had been eaten both by insects as well as by marsupials
(Didelphis) and proboscideans (Nasua).

728. On the following morning we passed the Potaro which dis-
charges its dark brown waters into the Essequibo from the South-West
It also must be uncommonly rich in rapids and is only separated from
the Mazaruni by a small portage, f

729. Continuous thundering and white foaniflakes flowing on
towards us betokened a new cataract, and there soon rose ahead a truly
confused scene of granite boulders lying one over the other, the surfaces
of which were covered with a thick crust of black brown-oxide of iron.
The rocky dam crosses the river from North-East to South-West and
thereby connects at the same time the two arms of the Curamucu Range
which stretch towards both banks and rise to a height of 1,200 feet. We
also managed these falls without any loss. But hardly had we caught our
breath again than the hateful noise threatened us anew, and a few mis-
chievous foam-flakes came to meet us like harbingers of fresh danger.

* The Arisaru Range consists of diabase, not granite, although f,ome granite is seen at
the foot of the range near the water edge. The Yaya Hills are diabase. (E.E.W.)

t It was not until 1870 that Harrington Brown reported the existence of the grand.
Kaieteuk Fall in the Potaro (Ed.)

SMYTH'S SETTLEMENT.

Beiihuri-Bimiocu Falls were now also crossed without any damage and
upon the southern point of Benhuri-Bumocu Island, in 5° 17' lat. N., we
found a longed-for rest. Mr. Youd had already left us yesterday to
hurry ahead with his boats to Waraputa Station and receive us there.
After landing, the coloured men told us that in the neighbourhood, in
fact on the eastern bank, there ought to be a small settlement of Arawaks
over whom a European, by the name of Smyth, had presided as chief for
several years past, and hence the reason for calling it Smyth's place.
They described this man as an absolute villain. Formerly a merchant
in Georgetown, he had committed such mean frauds and rogueries that
lie had been banished from the city and declared an outlaw. He retired
up here to the regions of the upper Essequibo, obtained a footing in the
settlement, and through his extraordinary cunning acquired such a
reputation for himself that, upon the death of the chief, he was chosen
successor. Amongst other things that he had brought away on his
flight from Georgetown was a number of knives, hooks, axes, etc., and
these, before his entrance into the camp, he had buried in the forest.
After now spending a considerable time among his hospitable friends,
he proclaimed that the Great Spirit had appeared to him in a dream
and had shewn him a spot where all the tools that they required would
be found : what he told them was confirmed and the harmless childreu
of nature willingly bowed down to his absolute sway. He had tried to
prevent the development of the neighbouring Waraputa Mission in every
possible way : with his dependents, he had destroyed its fields of a night
and had raised every means of inciting the neighbouring Indians against
the new Institution. He had even threatened to burn down Bartika
Grove and it was only through the watchfulness of Mr. B email, to whom
someone had betrayed the plan as well as the night fixed for its commit-
ment, that the crime had been frustrated. Smyth's settlement seemed
also to stand in sufficiently evil repute among the other Indians and was
carefully avoided by them.

730. We were fortunately able to escape the most dangerous of the
Waraputa cataracts by means of a side channel and, rejoicing over the
luck that had remained faithful to us up to now, we landed at Waraputa
Mission where we were welcomed by salvoes of all small arms available
and capable of being fired. Mr. Youd had already reached yesterday. It
rises upon a 40 to 50-foot high granite bed extending about a mile wide on
the western bank of the river, situate 5° 15' 13" lat. N. and 58° 47' 26"
long. W., which at the same time constitutes the little Waraputa Fall
immediately below the Mission. When my brother travelled up the
river in 1835 the Waraputa settlement was already there with 50 resi-
dents, Carib and Akawai, under the rule of chieftain Cambori : at the
present time it numbers 30 houses and possesses a small church built of
clay and embellished witii a tower, that Mr. Youd has had erected by his
wards since he was driven away here from Pirara. The two-storeyed
residence of the courageous missionary stood upon a projection of the
rocky hill and, with the exception of the weatherside, was built of split
trunks of Euterpe olcraeea and surrounded by a gallery. Below this
building, the wild raging element with its foaming and destructive eddies

THE WAUAPUTA MISSION. 245

forced its way through the rugged rocky boulders aiid cliffs. Farther
up a real labyrinth of thickly forested islands spread a green coverlet^
btreaked with silver bauds, over the whole river bed. {Surrounding the
house itself was a flourishing fruit)- and kitchen-garden where, together
with European plants which under this foreign sky reached a perfection
unknown in the Homeland, the indigenous pine-apple reached such a truly
immense size that, unable to support the huge golden fruit, the weak
stalk had to be supported. The bird-spider (Myyalc tilondii and M.
avicularia), a creature of repulsive appearance, had chosen the pine-
apple leaves for its quarters and on almost every plant one recognised the
small muslin-like thick web with its hateful occupant: I doubt whether
the spider really devours humming-birds, because in this robber's castle
I never found a trace, not a feather of one.

731. Mr. Youd's community consisted of Caribs, Macusis, Para-
vilhanos and some Brazilian soldiers and Vaqueiros (cattlemen) from
the Rio Branco who had settled here. The delightfully inviting appear-
ance of the houses, the exemplary order and cleanliness that reigned
over the whole village, and all the happy and contented faces of the
converts produced an exceptionally favourable impression; deeds pro-
claimed more loudly than words the love enjoyed by Mr. Youd and how
blessed had been his influence. The larger number of the residents
consisted of Caribs. Some Macusi families who had settled here a short
while before, could be distinguished from these, not only by build of body
but particularly by the absolutely different patterns with which they had
painted their bodies : the females had paid a truly minute attention to
their lines which were always broken up at right angles and interlaced.
The women wore their beautifully full and shiny hair, kept clean and
tidy, hanging a long way down over the neck and shoulders: the men
on the contrary in most cases had it cut short. Immediately above the
ankles and calves, as well as above the wrists and elbows, the legs and
arms of the women and girls were wound with strings of beads a hand's-
width broad.

732. Mr. Youd told us that one of the three Indians who had
accompanied my brother to London in 1839 and spent a year there had
come and settled here on his return. But Sororeng, a Paravilhano, had
not let himself be seen and my brother was just about to express his
surprise when, all of a sudden, we saw coming from out of one of the
houses a fine adult barefooted man wearing a long overcoat buttoned all
the way up, with his somewhat short neck tied in a high cravat, his head
covered with a felt hat, and legs clothed in black trousers. Dripping
with perspiration he hastened to my brother with an expression of the
most heart-felt joy, and hardly knew in fact whether he ought to express
his feeling at once more seeing my brother in exactly the same way as
the latter received him : he seized his hand, then stood in front of him,
watched him long and attentively and then turned suddenly round,
hurried back to one of the houses and brought out a young woman whom
!je presented to my brother as his wife. He told him that Saramang, the
Macusi, who had also been to London, died soon after his return from
Europe. Having again declared his intention of also coming with us on

246 No PROPHET IN ONE'S OWN COUNTRY.

our present journey into the interior, my brother willingly accepted the
offer, because he not only spoke English and Creole Dutch but, in addi-
tion, knew three different Indian languages: that this desire of accom-
panying us on the trip had nothing whatever to do with the spontaneous
emotions resulting from the mutual greeting was proved by the enduring
attachment of this faithful fellow up to the very last moment of our stay
in Guiana.

733. His people had lost all faith in honest and upright Sororeng
after his journey to London. As he often told me afterwards, ''They
take me for a damned liar, for when I told them that over there are to be
seen animals even larger than jaguars and cows, and I had seen for
instance, an immense Long- nose (elephant) and a Long-neck (giraffe)
which were as large as a house, my friends got up and left me. Since
then," he added "I rather tell them nothing more, because they would
not believe me at all." Sororeng was one of the few survivors of the
once very powerful tribe of Paravilhanos whose district extended into
the environs of the Kio Branco.

734. Since no more settlements were to be expected on the banks of
the Essequibo, we spent six days here to obtain sufficient supplies of
cassava bread and at the same time to send back one of the smaller corials
to Ampa, under the captaincy of a coloured man, to fetch the things we
had left behind, Mr. Youd lending us one of his boats to replace it:
some of the Indians from Waraputa were engaged to paddle it down.
Mr. Youd wanted to wait for the arrival of the military expedition at
Waraputa and join it there.

735. I was very pleased with the school instruction as carried out
by Mr. Youd's assistant, who ran the mission by himself after his
principal's departure. Amongst the children who were being taught I
found a little Macusi girl five years of age who read and wrote quite
correctly. Mr. Youd shared Mr. Bernau's conviction that it was almost
impossible to teach the older Indians Christian morality and keep them
civilised: in the minds of the young generation on the contrary, the
scattered seeds found a fruitful soil and promised the most beautiful
fruit. I often had many a talk with Mr. Youd over his blessed sphere
of labour and believe that his band of youthful pupils, though small, yet
imbued with the elements of the true religious spirit and education,
would put to shame many a missionary who advertises in unctuous
speech, e.g., that "so many souls have found Salvation, that so many
can say 'Our Father,' that so many know the Christian belief, etc.," but
fails to add that this is only a matter of speech expressed with the lips,
of which the heart is totally ignorant. Mr. Youd could certainly
not speak of the thousands he bad brought to Christianity, but he surely
could do so of a small throng who, through his agency, really received
the blessings of the Gospel and had learnt to appreciate the higher senti-
ments. His beautiful and true adage was : "The way to do it is not by
just saying Lord, Lord !"

736. We all attended the Sunday service which must have proved a
trying ordeal for the brave missionary, for he held this first of all for us
in English, then for tHe Macusi Indians in their own language, and

Sow THE WAIKA ESCAPED THE SE&Moff. 247

lastly in Creole Dutch for the benefit of the Brazilians and coloured
people. A horn instead of a bell called the congregation to church,
where split trunk-stems formed the benches, and neither glass nor shutter,
closed the window -spaces, and I must admit that it formed a strange
spectacle when this small band of worshippers in diverse coloured
costume, or only half covered, took their seats in this simple edifice. Only
a few were entirely, the greater number hardly half, clothed. .Without
altering their countenances in the slightest degree, they all sat in the
little chapel like statues, with their eyes directed steadfastly on the
missionary. As there is but little singing, according to the ritual of the
English Established Church, the frequent pauses in the liturgy were
filled by the help of a barrel-organ that played several choral melodies,
until the soft and melodious strains of the devout gathering again
chimed in. The chieftain of the village, the Carib Irai-i, the last descend-
ant of the once notorious Kazike of the tribe, Mahanarva, sat dressed
in blue on a seat in the middle of the church. Iral-i still possessed the
gold half-moon shaped sign of sovereignty of his dreaded ancestors.
Curiosity had also attracted our Waikas and Warraus from the Barima
and Waini into the building. Everything that they saw and heard here
was new: they watched the preacher's every movement with the most
strained attention and were visibly affected by the sounds of the barrel-
organ and the singing, yet when Mr. Youd commenced his sermon, which
to me seemed somewhat too prolonged, their interest flagged, and they
started turning their impatient looks towards the door. As we sat
immediately behind the pulpit we were able to survey and accurately
observe the whole gathering. The first to show signs of restlessness
was one of the Waikas from Manari: he seemed unable to stand it any
longer. When Mr. Youd turned his gaze from off the spot where he was
standing, he also cast his towards the door, though the large number of
people in between and an innate feeling of propriety must have convinced
him that it was impossible to gain freedom by that way without occasion-
ing plenty of disturbance. The open window offered an easier and surer
means of escape, so quickly making up his mind and without taking his
eyes off Mr. Youd he commenced moving sideways in its direction almost
unnoticed. Whenever during the harangue the preacher looked his way
the wily Indian suddenly stood stock still. He finally reached the
longed-for goal, the window raised some six feet from the ground, and at
a favourable moment, on Mr. Youd turning to the side opposite, made a
bound for liberty. His movements were carried out so slyly, and the
jump through the window so rapidly effected that Mr. Youd did not
have the slightest idea of his escape. It can be easily understood that
we could hardly refrain from laughing and only felt all the more
stimulated to do so when the rest of the Waikas and Warraus followed
their leader with equal cunning, and Mr. Youd at last noticed our excite-
ment. The remainder of the congregation however showed no sign's of
disturbance, but watched the proceedings without a change of counte-
nance. When after the conclusion of the service we informed the brave
missionary of the cause of our restlessness, he assured us that he had not

248 DIFFERENT DIALECTS, BUT PBOBALLE COMMON LANGUAGE.

noticed the disappearance of his hearers at all. and yet seven of them had
made their exit through the window.

737. After church we visited the pleasant and extensive fields
surrounding the village. Each house had its own piece of arable land
which the family worked for their exclusive benefit. A large area was
cultivated by them collectively as common property, the profits of which
went to defray the expenses of the Mission. The soil must be unusually
fertile : I had never yet seen cassava in so flourishing a condition. The
ground consisted of a rich layer of clay in which granite rocks made their
appearance everywhere.

738. On returning from our stroll a dog belonging to the chieftain
Irai-i that had been bitten in the forest by a labaria (Trigonocephalus
atrox] under the right eye occupied our whole attention. The poor
creature must have suffered terribly judging from the piteous way it
whined : shortly after, it could hardly be recognised, the pointed head of
the greyhound having swollen into the downright massive one of a lion.
Proximity to the fire seemed to alleviate its sufferings, the tormented
creature regularly raking up the ashes with its snout.

739. Next morning we took a corial to visit the Great Waraputa
Fall which is of considerable interest not only on account of its grandeur
but also for the large number of hieroglyphics and sculptures hewn in its
rocks, since one can recognise in them traces of a by -gone age which un-
mistakeably indicate a higher degree of culture of the aborigines in
previous times, a view that is held by the most competent authorities.
It is shewn historically that the Spaniards on their discovery of America
found this new continent occupied by a race of men who both as regards
physical features as well as intellectual faculties differed from all other
nations of the world as it was then known, while on the other hand it
shewed within itself such a general racial correspondence in bodily-
frame, manners and customs, that it must have been consequently all
the more surprising to see the great family split up again into innumer1-
able tribes with languages differing completely from one another. How
then, one might at all events ask, amidst this general racial similarity,
did the change of language, the medium of mutual understanding, come
about? According to the erudite researches of a certain Wilhelm von
Humboldt Sr. and others, at least 500 different languages are distinguish-
able in America. Humboldt ascribes this alteration of language partly
to the very variable surface-conformation of the country, partly to the
dividing barriers of vegetation. Of course, so long as all the many
peculiarities of expression are limited to verbal transmission, and are
accordingly subject to corruption, nothing definite can be decided about
their structure and as to how closely or distantly they may be related :
nevertheless there is fairly good reason for believing that in spite of the
verbal transmission there exists in all these languages a certain gram-
matical analogy and resemblance of structure which gives all the more
probability to the assumption, that notwithstanding all the extraordinary
differences of dialect, they have all had a common origin. Whether now
the occupants of America are really autochthonous and of the same age
as th'e surf ace-conformation of their portion of the earth, or whether

219

03
§

250 RESEMBLANCES IN THE

they are of Asiatic origin as has been claimed, certainly cannot be proved
.with certainty in the complete absence of historical data. The belts
of hieroglyphics that we nnd extending through the whole of South
America and North America as far as Behring's Straits into Northern
Siberia, the characters of which so unmistakeably correspond with one
another, might at all events make the peopling of America through
Asiatic hordes more than probable, especially if we further take into
account the resemblance of the whole physical features of the Indians to
that of the Mongolian tribes of Northern Asia. These fugitive sugges
tions may suffice to draw attention to the importance underlying these
old inscriptions which we found in the course of our travels along the
most different degrees of latitude, not only in the river valleys but also
on considerable heights. Upon enquiring from the natives as to who had
made them we everywhere received the reply : ''Our forefathers when the
immense waters still covered the earth and they navigated the mountains
in their corials."

740. The Great Cataract lies to the South-East of the Mission, and
after avoiding some of its many channels, one of them carried us to its
foot. The Fall was undoubtedly one of the most sublime I had hitherto
seen. /The mass of water rushes down, a 12-foot high perpendicular rocky
wall while at the bottom of the fall the huge granite boulders, completely
covered with those wonderful figures, everywhere emerge from out of the
black rocky cauldron like swimmers who have lost their way. The
hieroglyphics which are even still incised to a depth of from £ to i an
inch in the hard granite* show no trace whatever of symmetrical propor-
tions, many of them measuring not quite a foot while others on the other
hand go up to over two feet and more. Besides several representations
of human figures, including also some of animals, there is in particular a
repetition of spiral lines which, only differing in size and with some
slight modifications, are very like Semitic language-signs. The Macusis
accompanying us called this picture writing Ta, emong-kong, while they
described the marks upon their bodies as Imenn-casa. If one bears in
mind the hardness of the stone and the further fact that on the discovery
of America the inhabitants knew as little about iron as the tribes of the
interior do at the present time, it must be assumed that many years were
required to cut these markings to such a depth, unless it is to be sug-
gested that they testify to a long-past higher state of civilisation during
the pre-historie period of the Continent.

741. We did not find the hieroglyphics mentioned by Hortsmann in
the Rupununi although we searched the river practically from end to
end, while the Indians from whom we everywhere enquired, knew
nothing about them. On the journey to Roraima we discovered a new
series that were cut in a sandstone mound : these differed in many
respects from those at Waraputa, but seemed to resemble instead those
which Alexander von Humboldt found on the gramme rocks of Caycara on
the Orinoco, and Culimacare on the Casiquiare. The singular spiral

* There is a diabase dike in the granite at Waraputa. Prof. Harrison states " the intru-
sive rock is covered in places with rude prehistoric figures of the kind known in the Colony
as Timehri writings." (E.E.W).

THE DYING INDIAN BOY. 251

figures interlacing with one another were here entirely wanting: in their
place a number of crude pictures of snakes, crocodiles, suns, moon, and
stars covered the surface which was unfortunately already much
weathered.

742. As it perhaps might be interesting for many of my readers to
possess a faithful copy of this picture writing, I have subjoined some of
the figures from Waraputa Fall (p. 249.)

743. The vegetation of the islands almost generally consisted of
Psidlum, Eug&nia, Inga, and Mimosa. Here also the granite rocks
showed that black glassy covering and were astonishingly often veined
with quartz.

744. Shortly before our arrival in Waraputa a number of Macusi
Indian strangers had landed at the Mission on their way to Georgetown
where they wanted to exchange the fruits of their laoour for other
articles. Amongst them was to be seen a poor boy of from ten to
twelve years of age who was suffering from dropsy in its most advanced
stage : as his condition was hourly becoming worse it was necessary for
the party to await here its fatal termination which took place four days
later. Kanaima was, of course, responsible for the death. In the
dernonology of the Macusis, Akawais, Wapisianas, and Arekunas, this
kanaima plays quite a peculiar part. It appears to be not only the
personified desire of man's revenge but in general the author and source
of all evil, yet without developing into a distinct individual Evil Spirits-
to put it shortly, it is a Proteus without definite shape and fixed concep^
tion. In spite of our long stay with the Macusis, amongst whom this
religious belief is found most cultivated, we did not succeed in getting a
clear insight into this kanaima, since he is represented both as an evil
invisible, demoniacal essence and also in many cases as an individual
personality, though always in the nature of the avenger of known or
unknown wrongs. Who and what Kanaima is they could never tell us,
but they explained every death as his effect, his doing. Out of all the
confused conceptions, this much seemed to me to stand out clear that
the manner and method by which the Indian satisfies his revenge — for he
never approaches his transgressor face to face, but seeks to overcome
him by ambush, and satisfy his vengeance by guile — is the chief
creative cause of this delusive belief in kanaima which, like an oppressive
nightmare, everlastingly pursues his every act and deed, makes him bar
the door at the day's close, and induces him to believe that he recognises
its presence in every unusual noise of the night. I have already men-
tioned among the Warraus the thirst for revenge that often rules the
Indian and drives him mad as soon as he considers himself injured in
his honour or in his wife : a passion that is not quelled until satisfied by
the death of the offender, even by the extermination of his whole family.
As I also mentioned, the one who seeks revenge does not come out into
the open but springs warily yet unfailingly from out of hiding upon his
victim, just when the latter imagines himself most secure. Every poison,
except arrow-poison, is kanaima, a name that is likewise applied to
every Indian against whom it is Known that a wrong has been done.
Wassy is especially included amongst the poisons that prove most

252 DEATH DUE TO KANAIMA.

disastrous in their effects. It is prepared out of the bulb or tuber of a
plant which; in spite of niy efforts, 1 never got acquainted with, because
all requests, all promises of a rich reward for a specimen, remained fruit-
less: the Indians maintained that if they once betrayed the plant to the
Paranaghieris the latter would immediately find its antidote. They cut
the tuber into thin slices, dry it in the sun, and then pound it with the
greatest precautions into the finest powder which has quite the appear-
ance of arsenic. If revenge drives the Indian to become kauaima, he
follows the victim like a snake which, continually winding its way
amongst the leaves never lets him out of sight, ready at any moment to
make the fatal spring — until he finally succeeds in surprising him asleep.
He now sprinkles a small quantity of the powder over the sleeper's lips
or under his nose so that he may inhale it. An intense burning in the
intestines, wasting fever, tantalising thirst that cannot be stifled by any
means whatever, are symptoms of the poisoning which gives the victim
the terrible knowledge that his days, yea even his hours, are numbered.*
Within four weeks the sick man is reduced to a skeleton, and dies in the
most frightful agony. If the kanaima does not succeed in satisfying his
revenge in that wray he alters his plans, drops all idea of ambush or
waiting on the chance of catching his victim innocently asleep, and tries
to gratify the one desire that night and day haunts his soul, by cultivating
a Pharisaical friendship. But if even by this method, by dissimulation, or
hypocrisy, his would-be victim's mistrust and fear of revenge cannot be
dispelled — then the kanaima suddenly disappears from out of the village
and no one knows where he is to be found. Without rest, without
repose, and goaded on by the one burning desire for revenge that ever
more and more inflames; his breast, he strides through the forest up hill
and down dale, and does not return until he has killed his man or wounded
him with a poisoned arrow. Often for six months at a time, even longer,
will he search and watch, and during the whole period avoid every inter-
course with other Indians : forest trees and mountain hollows are his
nightly camps, the fruits alone are his food. But from the time that he
leaves the village he is considered as much an outlaw by the other Indians
as the victim whom he pursues is to him. While the kanaima thus casts
aside all the bonds that tie him to his family and tribal relatives, he
becomes the bugbear, the demon of the neighbourhood, an outcast whose
life is at any moment forfeit, because from now on it is the duty of every
Indian to kill him whenever met with in the forest. When following the
first two methods mentioned of satisfying his revenge, no outward sign
betrays Ms inward emotion, his criminal intent, but now this is made
patent. His body is painted in a peculiar fashion and an animal's pelt
is worn. If he finally meets his victim alone and deems himself the
superior in physical strength, he starts the fight, wounds him with his
poisoned arrow, and transfixes his tonpie with the fangs of the
most poisonous of snakes. The victim, with his tongue swollen to an
ungainly mass, is thus entirely robbed of speech for the now measured
• _ — _

* The description of the symptoms is too vague to permit of accurate identification. Any
high fever would cause the tantalizing thirst. It would seem probable that the description is
of Malarial Fever with gastro-intestinal localization. (F.G.R )

How THE KANAIMA WAS DISCOVERED. 255

period of his short remaining life, so that even should he succeed in
reaching his village he is unable to name his murderer, for otherwise
another kanaima might arise on behalf of this victim and a similar fate
overtake the present one. I know from my own experience that the
Indians carefully collect the fangs of the worst snakes, because during
the course of our journey we could never kill any of these reptiles without
their breaking them off and preserving them.

745. I had personal proof as to how deeply this superstition is rooted
in the Macusis, even after my return to the homeland in the case of a very
intellectually gifted Indian who, absolutely on his own account, had
accompanied my brother to England, to learn all about the land of the
Paranaghieris, and from there had come over with him to my father's
home, where we brothers and sisters had foregathered once more after a
long period of separation. Misseyari (= long hair) had an infinitely fond
attachment for his only sister : for her he collected every bead, every bit
of tinsel that he could get hold of. One day I came into his room and
found him seated on the chair looking very sad and terribly upset. I
asked him what was the matter and whether he was sick, but Misseyari
shook his head, and after a long struggle told me that he had. learnt that
kanaima had come into his sister's house that very night and had killed
her and all her family, and that she would never now wear the beads that
he had collected for her. When I enquired further whether he had dreamed
all this, he said No, and the only answer I got to all my remaining
questions was, that he learnt it a few minutes ago : no one had told him,
he had not dreamed it but he knew it had happened that very night,
and he could not say anything further.

746. As already mentioned, kanaima was of course also at Waraputa
the cause of the dropsical boy's death — but to discover now in which
district the kanaima lives, the Indians practise an abominable custom
which, as a witness of it, gave me an a\vful shudder. To the accom-
paniment of an awe-inspiring monotonous song, the corpse was carried
to an open space where, on the people forming a circle round it, the
father cut off the thumb and fingers from each hand, the large and small
toes from each foot, and a piece from each heel and threw the bits into a
new pot filled with water. In the meantime a fire had been lighted near
the corpse and the vessel placed on it. The water commenced to boil,
and according to the side over the edge of which the boiling and bubbling
water first threw the mortal remnants as they started bobbing up and
down indicated the direction where the kanaima was hiding. There was
something gruesome, something devilish about it to see these copper-
coloured individuals during the singing of the song of sorrow staring with
steadfast gaze upon the prancing pieces to catch the very moment for
the first one to be slithered over with the bubbles. Directly this occur-
rence took place, it was notified by a yell that pierced one's very marrow.
One of the fingers had fallen over the brim on the western side of the
pot, in the very direction whence tke Indians had come. After long
consultation they seemed to be of opinion that the kanaima must be
living in their own village. After the boy's spinal column, feet, and armH
bad been broken, he was coiled up like a snake and squeezed into a

254 THE MAOM.MATA TUETLE.

small tin box, about 2ft. long, lift, broad, and lift, high which they had
probably bartered in Georgetown, on some former occasion : after its
cover had been thickly plastered with wax it was carried into the forest
where they built a little benab, laid the box on a staging below, and
lighted a fire beneath. In a year's time they would be returning to fetch
the skeleton and bury it in their village, when they certainly must have
searched in vain for the skull which my brother had previously taken
away with him.

747. As we had now bartered cassava bread more than sufficient to
risk any scarcity of it during the next fortnight, fresh arrangements
were made for the prosecution of our journey, although we had not as
yet succeeded in replacing the paddlers who had gone for the things left
at Ampa, because already prior to our arrival the best of the men had
left for Georgetown to serve as boathands with the military expedition.
My brother was therefore forced to send several coloured men in a boat
over to Smyth's settlement where they were to try and replace those
who were missing, but the attempt, as might have "been expected, was in
vain, the chieftain strictly forbidding his dependents to accompany us.
On their return they brought a huge matamata turtle (Chelys fimbriata)
that they had caught on the bank. It was the only specimen we had seen
on the Essequibo: I found it all the more plentiful on the Takutu,
not only on the river itself but also in its back waters. There cannot
possibly be a more hideous creature than such a turtle, its abominable
appearance, already sufficiently deterrent in itself, being rendered
still further repulsive on account of its horribly disgusting stench.
Hollenbreughel, so wanton in his fantastic description of horrors, has
never created such a monstrosity of loathsomeness as the reality presented
here. The Caribs fell with real fury upon the flesh of the animal: I
claimed the carapace which was unfortunately spoilt subsequently. The
snout-like head and neck, with a number of hacked-out lappets, and broad
feet with similar but somewhat smaller ones, "both of which it is unable
to withdraw under its flat carapace, aroused my deepest disgust every
time I came across a specimen. The laws are just as flabby and puffy
as those of the Pipa. Amongst the birds found here the beautiful Trocjon
melanurus Gould., as well as Bucco cinerens Gm., and B. ienebrosua Gm.
were particularly conspicuous. Cuia is the name given by the Indians
to the Trogon.

748. On the day before leaving, the first thing we did was to haul
our boats over the small Waraputa Falls, a labour that robbed us of most
of the day owing to the whole of the baggasje having to be unpacked,
and yet these were far from being the most dangerous of the series, those
of the Twasinki still being ahead.

749. In company with Sororeng, his wife, her mother, and a second
Indian with his wife and family that formed the crew of the boat loaned
bv Mr. Youd, we once more started up the river. When on the farther
side of the islands that one can overlook from Waraputa, rapid followed
upon rapid so quickly that we were hardly able to breathe freely in the
real sense of the term. In the course of the wearisome day two huge granite
boulders on the eastern bank, of which the one hacl a circumference of

THE GREAT SPIRIT LEAVES His FOOT-PRINTS. 255

95 feet and the other 65 feet, especially interested us owing to a peculiar
impression on the surface of their summits: they at the same time
reminded me of a similar freak of Nature in the homeland. As in the
wildly romantic Bode valley of the Hartz Mountains, the highest rocky
top shows distinct tracks of a horse on the jump, so here on both granite
boulders one is apt to be deceived by the imprint of a human foot just
in such a way as if somelMxly had sprung from one stone to the other:
the representation of the whole foot, but particularly that of the five
toes is indeed remarkable. The Indians told us, with a certain amount of
awe, that this was the trail left behind by the Great Spirit when he still
lived amongst their forefathers and had wandered through the district.
These two huge granite blocks had apparently been one boulder in
previous times: as the result of natural causes this had burst and was
completely split. The coloured people called them "Jump-stones."

750. The Kapids commencing above these interesting boulders con-
tinue in similar if not increased number on their farther side also, so
that during the course of a whole day from sunrise to sunset it often
happened that we barely covered three or four miles. The uncommon
skill and facility in swimming, that I had hitherto only had opportunity
of admiring in the Indian males, was displayed by their women to an
equal degree, for Sororeng's wife and mother-in, law braved the whirlpool
when hauling their boat just as well as the men, and swam rope in hand
through the blustering eddy from crag to crag with the same ease as
they did.

751. On the 18th January we at last reached the Twasinki Range
rising 1,100 feet above riveri level on the western bank, while some miles

o / 7

farther in the background the Akaiwanna Range, some 1,000 feet in
height, rose on the eastern shore. Both these ranges impinge upon the
river in such a way as to force it into a regular S, a double bend, the
total course of which amounts to about G miles. Innumerable rapids and
eyots with intricate channels, the waters of which often seem to be changed
into masses of foam, render this stretch almost unnavigable. Of the
three most considerable waterfalls which are found within this reach,
that of Yucuribi* in 4° 59' lat. N. is the most dangerous. A huge rocky
dam, formed of granite and gneiss boulders piled up on top of one
another in layers, that cuts the river from north to south, is responsible
for the really grandiose scenery here: the mountain ranges simul-
taneously recede somewhat from either side of the river and by that
means form the most magnificent mountain amphitheatre that the
imagination can shape, an amphitheatre in the arena of which the wildly
raging foaming and thundering waves of the river, already cribbed and
cramped by the preceding rapids, rush against one another in the most
awful strife. The waterfall must have been visited several times already
by enterprising colonists, because several names and initial letters were
seen to have been cut on the trees standing near.

* Grreat Yucuribi Fall is over diabase (E.E W),

256 OUR INDIANS' EYES ARE 'DOCTORED.*

752. The Taquiari, a spur of the Twasinki Range, even at a distance
occupied our whole attention. Two mighty granite boulders that
towered far above the dense masses of foliage surrounding them and
from far off looked exactly like the large watch-towers of an old castle-
ruin, lent the mountain quite a peculiarly romantic charm,, and
reminded me of the happy hours spent on my trip down the Khine. And
yet what a huge difference there is after all between these two streams.
Over there every inch of land called to the wanderer "I am subordinate,
subject to human intelligence." Out here, however, .Nature was loudly
proclaiming in her unrestrained liberty, "I still rule with my original
strength unimpaired." Over there, break of day awakens the life that
has hardly fallen asleep, and what with boat pressing after boat, the
splashing of the busy oars that beat time to the joyous matutinal greeting
of the lark, and the half-hidden hamlets peeping pleasantly from out of
the dark green of the vine-clad heights — there is but very little of Nature
remaining to be seen anywhere. Over there, large two-masted ships
push off from their anchorage and follow the old highway while the
herdsmen drive their cattle, with the cheerily tinkling bells to the water,
and the ruins of the Past either look down in sombre gloom from the
mountain tops or else are reflected in the ever-youthful never-aging
current : in short, civilisation yonder has spun a multiplicity of interests
around human life and is prepared to lay Nature waste over a still wider
area. But here? Everything the reverse. The eye searches in vain for
testimony of creative human intelligence, of the transforming powers of
man, but only recognises the works of Nature labouring with incon-
ceivable prolixity; for here, even Man himself who is still the true image
of her handiwork has not yet freed himself from her bonds, nor yet risen
superior to her sway.

753. The Taquiari or Comuti range receives its name from two
remarkable columns formed of several granite boulders heaped on top
of one another, and the one of which when quite close resembles an
Indian water-jug, called Comuti by the Arawaks and Taquiari by the
Caribs. Both columns commence about 150 feet below the highest
pinnacle of the range which is somewhere about 800 feet high : the height
of the fomuti rock* is 160 feet. On one of the columns are to be seen
se\eral Indian sculptures which in regularity and symmetry surpass
those of Waraputa. The Indians who came over here with us for the
first time were seized with fear and trembling, because they recognised
in these stony giants the haunts of an evil spirit, the demon who delights
in other people's misfortunes, who would be vexed if they snatched a
look at his "Belle Vue" : their deaths, in the next rapids for beinjr so
inquisitive would be due to his revenge. Nevertheless man's curiosity
often braves certain death as soon as it is made possible for him to yield
to its seductive temptations. Accordingly, directly we got near the
mischief-making rocks a quantity of tobacco was sprinkled into the
eyes of those who were visiting them for the first time. Naturally the

* Comuti Mountain is composed of diabase. (E.E.iW).

THE FRESH- WATER HYENA. 957

intense pain produced by this burning lye prevented them opening their
eyes, now bathed in tears, and gazing upon the dreaded watch-towers. It
was impossible to refrain from laughing on noting the earnestness with
which the older ones rubbed this juice into the novices still subject to
the spirits' powers, and the grimaces and contortions caused by it. The
sufferers were allowed to wash them out only after the fateful spot was
passed. The Indian regards every out-ofl the-way-shaped stony mass
likewise as the residence of an evil spirit and it is only with the greatest
anxiety that such situations are traversed. As we never adopted these
precautionary measures but continued to direct our vision on these
wonders of Nature, they naturally expected nothing else than our imme-
diate annihilation. Even in the far distance we saw both giants rising
above the densely matted tops of the trees.

754. We passed the mouth of the little stream Akaiwanna whence
a well trodden path leads to the Demerara, which is said to be reached
in six hours from here. Beyond the Comuti range the base of which on
its southern slope is watered by the Murawa that falls into the Essequibo
opposite the Curibiru Falls, the hitherto compressed river bed gradually
widens until at the 100-yard wide mouth of the Siparuni or Red river,
which empties into the main stream from the south west, it almost re*-
seinbles a lake encircled with thick forests, an illusion that is still more
promoted by the almost unnoticeable current. Having searched in vain
around the Essequibo bank for a suitable spot to rest at, we journeyed
some way up into the bed of the Siparuni, a river that has received its
name from the brownishi-red colour of its water : its banks were thickly
covered with the most beautiful timber. The Burro; burro joins it some
6 miles above its junction with the Essequibo, situate 4° 47' lat. N.
From here the Brazilians claim as Imperial territory the whole of the
western bank of the Essequibo as well as the southern bank of the
Siparuni. It did not take us long to find a convenient camp, and as the
continuous filliping and splashing of the water promised a fairly rich
supper, the fishing; lines were immediatetly got ready and thrown out,
but still quicker hauled in, because almost at the very same moment these
touched the water, the fish took the bait. Naturally the catch consisted for
the most part only of several species of voracious Pirai (Pygocentrus
nigcr, piraya and Pygopristis fumariiis Mull and Trosch.) and the Scrra-
salmo aurcus Spix. They are the greediest predatory fish to be found in
sweet water, and could therefore rightfully be called its hyenas : for the
rest, they are found in almost all the waters of Guiana. Alexander von
Humboldt has already reported how dangerous these fish are to bathers
for which reason the Indians always have a very good look at the water
beforehand to see whether it is harbouring any. The Pygocentrus niger
are about the size of a carp and armed with a real rake of the sharpest
teeth: they are accustomed to collect in large swarms at certain spots,
and then imperil everything that comes within reach, even fish that are
ten times larger than themselves. If they attack a larger fish they first
of all bite off the tail-fin and thereby rob it of its chief organ of locomo-
tion, while the remainder fall upon it like harpies, pull off the flesh and

258 THE ^IIRTLES WANT TO

tear it to pieces until the head only is left. No mammal that swims the
stream escapes their exorbitant greed : indeed, even the limbs of the water
fowl and turtle, and the toes of the alligators are not safe. If the kaiman
is attacked by them it usually rolls itself on its back and stretches its
belly on the surface. The surest sign of their voracity is most con-
spicuous, however, in this that they do not spare their own wounded mates,
as I have myself noticed. While busy fishing one evening I hauled quite
a fair-sized pirai on land, and after thinking I had killed it by striking
it smartly on the head, placed it beside me on the rock. Nevertheless it
all of a sudden made a jump or two and before it could be prevented, got
into the water where, although half stunned, it swam about on the
surface. In a twinkling, 16 to 20 of its mates were gathered round, and
•within a few minutes nothing but the head was left. Like some of the
species of Silnrus it also grunts when drawn out of the water. The
flesh is really not without taste but extremely bony, for which reason
we only bothered about it when we could not catch any other.

755. Four miles farther to the southward we reached the northern
point of Tambicabo, a long island that stretches 8 miles down the Esse-
quibo and divides it into two channels which branch off at so considerable
an angle that they have been often mistaken for two different rivers. In
a deep and picturesque bight of the western arm there formerly stood
Arinda, a Dutch station. On the farther side of Tambicabo the river
surface was again intercepted with numerous islands, and our turtle-egg
harvest commenced afresh. Whenever passing a sandbank uncovered
by water, or a small island, we always had to make a stop so as to fill all
the boats with the countless eggs, for it was only now that the actual
laying season seemed to have commenced. Whole baskets of eggs were
collected by the Indians in a very short time, Mr. Fryer having in the
meantime discovered that the yolks formed an excellent substitute for
the milk wanting in our coffee. During the day we saw whole crowds of
turtle near the sandbanks stretching their little heads out of the water as
if perhaps wishing to view the spot where they proposed ridding them-
selves of their burden at night. The slightest noise frightened them away
and our coloured crew maintained that those thus scared off always
searched for another island or sandbank. At nightfall they betake
themselves to the land, scrape out with their hind feet the holes in the
sand already mentioned, place themselves vertically in them, lay their
eggs, cover the cavities over again and make their way to the water. Our
Indians often surprised them about midnight at this manoeuvre,
when they just turned those which they caught on to their backs so as
to lose no unnecessary time in carrying them off and letting the other
scared ones escape. The flesh however was at this period unusually
tough and coarse. Just like the coloured folk of the lower river areas,
the Indians of the upper reaches arrange big expeditions here about
this time, in order to collect and smoke the innumerable eggs, a condition
in which they not only keep a fair time, but also taste quite good. The
white of the egg disappears in the process, only the yolk getting hard.
By the presence or absence of a pair of little black dots the coloured man
and the Indian can recognise at once wheth'er the development of the

STUNG BY A

Joung turtle is already advanced or if the egg is still fresh. But man is
not the only one to search for these delicacies : members of the cat tribe
are just as keen on hunting after the eggs as are kaiinans and certain bird:-*.
It was a highly amusing sight watching the Indians, coloured people, and
those Germans of ours chasing about with the greatest diligence on such
islands where the last mentioned, of course, always collected the least
(share of the booty and generally only got leavings when a jaguar or
kaiman had visited the nests before-hand. While, therefore, the former
often brought home their thousands, the latter and especially poor
Stockle, amidst the laughter of the more fortunate ones, returned with
hardly a dozen in his basket, and yet he could never pick one big enough
when he started out. In the evening one of our captains who was just
then engaged splitting some wood was stung by a scorpion on the ball of
the hand : he had trampled on the creature after being injured and hence
the species could not be determined. The swelling was only slight, but
the wound seemed the more inflamed, and the poor devil whined and com-
plained, all night through, of a stinging pain in the breast and shoulders,
We got him to rub the wound frequently with laudanum : by morning
the pain was relieved and by the flay after he could use his hand again.

756. Among other interesting plants on Tambicabo Island I found
'Artanthe apiculata and corylifolia Klotzsch., Mikania racemttlosa Benth.,
M. denticulata DeC. and the celebrated Guaco Humb. Bonp. The natives
Call the latter Errawarang: the coloured people use the decoction of
it as an effective remedy against syphilitic diseases : nothing was known
here about its being an antidote against snake-bite.

757. In the course of the next 24 hours we got near the Ouropocari
Fall, but to negotiate this mighty obstacle to the further progress of our
journey that very same day was an impossibility, and so we postponed
the strenuous task for the next. Upon the western bank at the foot we
not only found a suitable camping ground but also believed we had
struck a spot in the falls where we could hope to haul up the corials.
A huge basalt boulder attracted our attention at the very start: its
perpendicular sides were fluted channelrlike in so remarkable a manner,
and the excavations ran so regularly and symmetrically as to give the
whole quite the appearance of a richly decorated Gothic tower.

758. Although we had hitherto fought all the dangers that threatened
without any loss of importance, our fears were nevertheless a good deal
more intensified here than at any of the previous falls, and we accordingly
had even the most trifling articles taken out of the boats. After finishing
this tiresome business and doing justice to the rare dishes on our richly,
supplied princely table where the tasty pacu, tigerhfish (Platystoma
tigrinum Val.) turtle and turtle-eggs again paraded, we lay down in
our hammocks amidst the i aging uproar of the waters and awaited the
following morning for fresh troubles and renewed work. On the eastern
side of the fall is a small island upon which there is said to have been
a fairrsized coffee plantation during the Dutch occupation, and that
berries had been gathered there even up to a few years ago : probably it
had been established at the same time that the Dutch extended their

260 PACKS OF PRETTY SACKAWINKIS.

stations as far as Arinda. My brother had visited the island on his
previous journey and had still found undoubted traces of a pond as well as
several fruit trees and non-indigenous ornamental plants run wild. On
the eastern bank were several mountains with a name received from a
little stream which the Indians, in connection with its dark brown waters,
called Siroppa,* because it seemed to bear resemblance to the syrup
probably seen by them in Georgetown. Upon the tongue of land which
we had chosen for our night's camp there also bloomed the dainty
Tabernaemontana, alba, Mill., the Deguelia, scandens Aubl., Eugenia,
Salsmannij vismiaefolia Benth., Elisabetha coccinea Schomb., Inga
floribunda Benth., Spennera, disophylla Benth., and Andira laurifolia
Benth. And now, there were we in the midst of this lovely floral finery,
puffing and sweating under the exertions of bringing the empty boats out
of reach of destruction, a labour that we only managed to complete by
afternoon : we had had to do without the powerful services of a Waika and
a Warrau who since last night had been attacked with violent dysentery.
759. Behind the Siroppa and Omughou mountain-system on the
eastern bank certain picturesque heights, the Maccari Mountains, soon
towered up in the S.E. and we were able to get an extensive view of the
beautiful landscape: the river, still 1,400 yards wide here, once more
presented an unbroken surface having its banks fringed w^th innumerable
groups of palms, amongst which Bactris pectinata and toincntosa,
Mart., as well as Astrocaryum gynacantJium and vulgare Mart.,
were particularly noticeable. We likewise came across a number of
Rhynchops, Plotus, Carbo, Ardea and Alcedo, especially A. torquata^
•which often caught fish much larger than it could swallow, and after
strangling and struggling would then perch upon the boughs of a tree
close to the water-side. The mammals were represented here by large
packs of pretty sackawinkis (Callithrix sciurea) which swung themselves
with inconceivable agility from branch to branch, and from tree to tree,
searching every leaf, every spider's web for caterpillars, beetles and
spiders. On drawing near one of these merry companies we every time
heard a grunting note with which probably the sentinels made the careless
ones cognisant of the danger threatening, for all at once a deep sudden
silence would set in : this was only now and again broken by the springing
from tree to tree, as well as by the squeaking of a weaker animal when
in its flight it happened to get in the way of a stronger one which had
bitten it. I was also witness here of the sacrificing love of these
creatures for one another. Having crawled unnoticed on to one of these
parties we managed to shoot several, amongst which was one, however,
that was only badly wounded. It made several attempts at escape and
when all failed raised a lamentable cry whereupon two others returned
from the fairly distant pack, probably with a view to its assistance
which, however, proved to be useless : without my having noticed it, one
of the Indians out of the boats had pointed his flint-lock at them, and the

* The Macusi Indians call it Ouropocarior Kurupukari Creek after the Falls: they
do not know it Under the other name. (Ed.)

THE CANNONADING WHEN THE MIGHTY FALL. 261

shot brought all three down at our feet. Iii the evening the Indians ate
the five monkeys that had been killed, as great dainties. With these
monkeys also, the youngster clambers upon the back or under the body of
i^s mother : she never leaves its side even when it is already playing round
about on the branches, so that, on the slightest danger she may be able to
shoulder her fond burden, hurry off, and away with it.

760. For some time past we had been frightened particularly at
night by an awful uproar that completely resembled a distant cannonade.
For a long time I did not know how to explain the terrible noise until
our Indians taught me that it was caused by the accidental uprooting of
the forest giants. To-night we were to be witnesses of such a scene of
destruction in the immediate neighbourhood of our camp. Hardly had
I lain down than I was awakened first of all by an uncanny rustling,
which was immediately followed by a frightful rattling like that from
innumerable rifles, and after a time by the most mighty thuds. A small
distance away from us the bank had been undermined by the current
and the whole of the huge growth covering it followed the collapse of
the soil. It was indeed a gruesome scene. A huge mass of foliage was
heaved into motion, and with the awful and reallv deafening crashes

t/ ~

of splitting and breaking timbers the falling giants dragged down into
dire destruction everything in the neighbourhood that was connected
up with them by bushi rope. In the morning there lay a large stretch
of forest bank upside clown in horrible confusion and the waves of the
Essequibo foamed wildly through the immense branches that only
yesterday were still softly swaying in the evening breeze. I often
subsequently bore witness to such scenes of devastation : indeed, I myself
was the cause of them, on a small scale, whenever I with my Indians
felled a tree covered with flowers which on account of its height could
not be climbed, when it usually entangled from six to ten of its neigh-
bours in its fall. On several occasions I thus came into possession of
flowers which, on account of their small size I had not at all noticed on
other trees, and then found myself doubly rewarded for the long labour,
often half a day occupied in cutting the giant down.

761. Hardly had we struck camp than a new Rapid, that of Orotoko
already lay before us, and once more gave us plenty of hard work to do
before we could resume progress in still water. A number of large
white cranes were strutting around on the exposed ridge of the stone
dam. Deceived by the distance and morning haze, under the veil of
which all objects become enlarged, we were first of all of the opinion
that it was a party of Indians who happened to be on a turtle-egg
expedition until we at last realised our mistake and at the same time
noticed several Carbo in their place. Morning on the river had quite a
peculiar charm. The sunbeams of the early dawn again mirrored
themselves in thousands upon thousands of dewdrops .on the tree tops
and hardly had the glowing orb. put in an appearance over the eastern
bank than the huge rocky boulders like mighty craters started rolling
their steam-clouds over the surface of the water and so made every
object at least in the Distance seem half a dozen times as big.

262 THE ORCHID or ORCHIDS.

762. After getting over the Orotoko the isolated and many clefted
Maccari Mountains once more came into view some two miles distant
from the bank in the S.E. So far as I could make out in the distance
their abrupt slopes which in some places rise perpendicularly are every-
where covered with whitish masses of rock : trees and bushes were only
to be noted here and there. Their western peak is exactly like a giant
gable. They lie in 4° 32' lat. N. Four miles farther south the rapids
began afresh and extended between a real labyrinth of islands for a
distance of 8 miles: there being a real superabundance of Lacis
fluviatilis growing upon the crags, the Myletes Pacu had again collected
in immense shoals.

763. Having had whole series of mighty rocky battlements to
contend with for some days past, we halted to-day after all our troubles
and hardships at the foot of the Achra-mucra Falls with their really
sublime and imposing parapets and whirlpools, their eddying and
blustering waterfalls. These huge granite and gneiss walls opposed
the course of the stream for several miles: they were 10ft. in diameter
and generally rose to a height of from 40 to 50 feet above the water level
and amongst them were many that shone like black polished marble, and
towards their summits were split into innumerable peaks. While in
some places these boulders emerge from the violently disturbed waters
like a petrified giant forest without any branches, in others again they
are heaped up on top of one another in chaotic confusion and bedecked
with Orchideae, Tillandsiae, Cactus, Clusiae, low bushes and stunted
trees. I was especially struck with the beautiful Cyrtopodium
Andcrsonii R. Brown, that I met here for the first time: its sedge-like
leaves exactly resemble those of the young sugarcane, and the often
foot-long yellow shiny flower-stalks made themselves already noticeable
at a tolerable distance. Associated with it on some of the heaps of
rock were also the really enchanting blossoms of Cattleya superba,
Schomb., the orchid of orchids, the flower-stalks of which often showed
seven to eight opened flowers of a dazzling darkmolet hue, as well as
the equally interesing Huntleya, violacea, Lindl., and scarlet-red Epiden-
drum Schom'burgkn Lindl. that garlanded the aged stones and stood
out in startling contrast with their sombre massif. Achra-mucra is
without doubt one of the most interesting spots of the whole Essequibo.

tue -vfcy barrier extends inland on both sides from East North East

to West ^vaflj West. The drier we found the Essequibo below the

&chra-mucrc, ^ ^a^er on above it, the more surprised were we at the

depth of some of u. _->hannejg between the immense clefts: this usually

amounted to from 12 ,o 15 fathomg Tne stream welters between the

mightv parapets an<1 1 ».ant nibble-heaps in a wav enousrh to make one

shudder, and it wo Id^ vfmtnpe ^ vain ^ crogs, t^e fans werp tWe

not amoncr the innumf ftWe channels one that is finite free from hidden

rock. While the co « were being tiauled up it, I clambered over the

crags that could be scs ^ ^^ collectef1 a nnmfor Of interesting plants

Hmono- which need j>^ mPT1HoTied Vitex camtatn Vnhl.. V. n*»i>rn*a.

Sw., Pfitrocarm w™^^ willd., P. ror^rrn Bentti., Le.ptolabiulti

nitcns Vogel, and Spiy^. Sc1lom^ur^m Benth.

ARTIFICIAL FIREWORKS. 263

704. Our two invalids getting weaker and weaker soon became
walking skeletons and although at yesterday's camp one of the .Warraus,
whom I had long suspected to be a Piai from his not eating salted fisk
or salted meat, had practised his supernatural powers ou his fellow,
tribesman, by blowing whole clouds of tobacco in his face, and
murmuring some incantations, the treatment had so far not proved
effective at all. This evening a Waika took pity on the sick Waika for
dense smoke-clouds were wafted over to us from out of the brushwood
where both medicine? men had removed their patients. I was only
surprised that the poor fellows did not die.

765. For a long while past, whenever the coloured people heard
us admiring any beautiful landscape, they started talking about some
illuminations that would surpass everything that we had hitherto seen,
but however inquisitive the intimation had made us there was always
unfortunately wanting the very article necessary for its display, namely,
a Mora at least partly hollow, a timber that is considerably more
resinous (fetter) than our fir-trees. We had pitched camp to-day above
the Achra-mucra on the western bank below the protecting shelter of
giant Mora trees when one of the men came gaily tripping over to us
to say that the exhibition could now be installed, for he had just found
an excellent fira torch, a tree at least 130 feet high and ten feet in
diameter. Hardly had the sun dipped behind the western edge of the
forest than the preparations were set afoot, and a small fire lighted in
the opening at the root-neck (Wurzelhals) in the inner core of the
hollow tree. It was again one of those infinitely beautiful fairy-like
tropical nights: the heavens, without a cloud, dotted all over with
myriads of sparkling and glittering stars, not a breath of air to sway
the dense foliage of the dark forest : the surface of the proud stream,
beyond the reach of its rage-restrained wrath, resembling a mirror that
reflected every object: all was at peace and rest, and only towards the
north did the waters wage a fruitless and furious fight against the
stone parapets calmly gazing on them. The lighted fire might have been
burning half an hour when the inner walls of the cavity right up to the
summit seemed to have caught fire. We stood upon one of the highest
crags spellbound for the moment at the outburst of blazing flame: in
front, the foaming water and dark rocks, at our side, the dark mass of
foresL, and behind, the glassy smooth surface of the becalmed and
languid current. There now forced itself from out of several openings
evidently situate where the branches were given off, a thick oily black
smoke which made its way over the stream in long and curly streaks'
these were lighted up of a sudden by some sparks that rushed through
the black columns like forked lightning. The flashes of light were
repeated more and more frequently until they also at last changed
just as abruptly into a huge column of fire that drove ahead of it a
regular cloud of flaming sparks in the midst of a dense black whirl of
smoke and then, like a sky-rocket, blazed up into the skies. This
moment was as surprising as it was sublime, and all of us gavft expres-
sion to our admiration and astonishment. The effects of the bright and
'dazzling illumination upon the surrotincling wildly romantic roefcs and

26i THE KAPPU BAMBU.

upon the inadly roaring eddy, associated with the heavy fuiniug and
foaming of the unbridled waves: then again, the glaring streaks of
light upon the dark-leaved giant trees of the immediate neighbourhood,
as well as the tremor of their foliage which, started by the heat, seemed
[to presage the early death of the fairy-like brightly coloured blossoms
of the innumerable Orchids and Tillandsiae covering their aged
branches: together with the peaceful picture of the vegetation reflected
in the still water on the distant eastern riverside: — in short, all and
everything combined to stage an evening's entertainment that I am
unable to delineate at all, and which even a deeply poetical soul could
only describe approximately. After the main gulf had for a long time
blazed up its mighty column of fire in solitary loneliness, larger or
smaller smoke-clouds gradually commenced to rise as before, from all
the bigger branches that likewise must have been hollow: these clouds
soon changed into equally plentiful lesser columns of fire, so that the
illumination ever became more enchanting, and fairly-like. Keally,
here was a Christmas Tree such as no Croesus in the world possessed.
!A.t last one huge bough after another broke away from the immense
trunk with a frightful crash, until this alone was left standing like a
giant chimney out of which the flame continued shooting high up to
heaven, and scattering a real rain of fire in all directions. We had to
thank our informants in some fashion or other for this lovely spectacle —
and how could we express our gratitude in any better way than by an
extra ration of rum?

766. Fortunately getting over the Achra-mucra Falls next morning
by way of the channel already mentioned, we fixed up a comfortable
place in Mr. Youd's corial for our two patients who were unable to sit
up straight: we had given up all hope that the Waika would live the
evening. After making our way for about another 12 miles up stream
towards South East, we reached the Eappu Falls and the mouth of the
Rappu River streaming into them from the West: this has received its
name from the quantity of bambn, (rnadua latifolia Kth. growing here
which is called Rappu by the Indians. A rocky barrier of coarse-grained
gneiss with red felspar crosses the river from East to West. Strange
to say we searched in vain for the slag-like glassy coating of the rocks
which had been met so generally in all previous falls. On the farther
side of Kappu Falls the mighty bend of the Essequibo which we had
followed since Potaro mouth for a stretch of 90 miles towards the S.E.
came to an end and the surface of the stream now again lay for 13 miles
straight south ahead. A long island, about 2 miles above the falls,
divides the river into two channels of which the eastern is called
Wenkobat. The big bight (Kirahagh of the Indians) Aruan or Tokutu
encroaches deeply on the western bank. With the Rappu Falls the last
rocky dam, the last of the rapids, was passed, and continuously smooth
water would carry us now all the way to Pirara. What wonder then
that, overjoyed with the luck that had hitherto favoured us, we stopped
in still water at the last crag and handed our crews and captains an
extra draught, we ourselves opening a bottle of champagne to celebrate
the successful passage of the dreaded cataracts. Tins being done, a

THERE'S MANY A SLIP. 265

50ft. long bainhu was fetched and the empty champagne bottle tied to
it : we had previously enclosed in it a sheet of paper conveying greetings
to the officers of the military expedition with the wish that fortune
might prove just as kind to them in crossing the falls as she had been
to us.

767. In the most cheerful humour we jumped off the crag into the
boat: I never dreamed at the time that my joy would be changed so soon
into sorrow : —

"O'er treacherous paths the Fates still trip:
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip."f

All flags and streamers were run up, the four remaining boats floated
merrily along on the tranquil surface, and the Union Jack seemed as if
beckoning to the Prussian colours fluttering far behind to hurry up and
join it. Just as my captain was about to take up their challenge and was
turning round the rock — a powerful smash, and everything that the
corial contained was in the water : he had not noticed a hidden crag and
the current had upset the boat. The accident happened go quickly and
unexpectedly that I only recovered my senses when, standing up to my
neck in water, I saw gliding past me all the articles capable of floating
and the whole of the Indians busily engaged in swimming after them.
The general cry of anxiety had recalled the boats hastening ahead, and
everybody tried their best to save the sinking and floating baggage : they
were fortunately able to save everything except several packages with
about 100 plant-specimens and a large number of fish-skeletons, which
the breaking eddy had already engulfed. Naturally, the water, the
greatest enemy of all, had made its way into almost all the cases, but as
the cloudless sky with the scorching sunshine promised an early restituo
in intecjrum, we quickly unpacked everything and exposed the saturated
collections to its full effects. Articles of trade for the Indians, plants,
birdl-skins, and mammal pelts, everything was spread out in a motley
crowd upon the; rock, and four hours later I could again follow the
remaining boats which proposed waiting for us at the camp. Had the
accident happened but ten feet farther out in the stream, everything
would have gone to the bottom or would have come to light again in the
whirlpool on the farther side of the rapids, smashed to pieces, a fate that
Stockle and I would have probably shared, because neither of us could
swim well enough to withstand so strong a current.

768. On the farther side of the island encircled with the slender
bambu ('Sect. 766) the stream, more than 500 yards wide, seemed
completely free of obstacles. Its western bank, consisting of a white
clay, gradually rose more and more until it at last formed a 15-foot high
white wall. A fairly sharp bend of the river bed had hitherto hidden
every distant prospect from me, but hardly had we rounded it than the
Makarapan Eange towered up ahead in the S.W. and formed a lovely
background to a most charming landscape. A number of giant Bombax

t " Tiickisch sind des Sohickaala Miichte,
Yoreilig Jauchzen greift in ihre Rechte,"

266 WE SEE OUR FIEST OTTEKS.

'globosum strove to make themselves as tall as the Mora, their trunks
shooting up above an impenetrable thicket, at least 30-foot high, of
Cucurbitaceae which had crept up to them and crowded out every other
genus of plant. The eastern bank was low and showed only Psidium and
Cecropia peltata,.!

769. An innumerable swarm of pigeons (Columba, rufina Tern.)
enlivened the mighty trumpet-trees with which the island was invested,
and the coo-ing of the males sounding in the distance indicated the
pairing season. Not daring to let slip this excellent chance for a tasty
supper, the hard and rough language of our guns broke discordant
in between the soft and flattering notes of love. A curling smoke
through the thick foliage ahead shewed that we were not only getting
near camp, but that we should find boiling water ready for our spoil.

770. .With the shout "A water dog ! a water dog !" the coloured crew
drew my attention to an animal that indeed did look a good deal like a
dog swimming. The .Warraus called it Etopu. .While directing my
attention to it I suddenly kept on seeing more and more heads emerging
from the water until at last seven, in which I soon recognised otters, had
collected round our corial. With a peculiar barking and snorting they
came close to the boat, now raised themselves to more than half their
length above the surface, then disappeared just as quickly, and bobbed
up again at a distance farther off. The Indians now gave a most striking
imitation of their peculiar rattling note during the execution of which
they at the same time kept continually tapping their throats with the
hard flats of their hands. At once the otters were all attention and ranged
themselves in a row : enticed by, and inquisitive at, the sounds they then
came swimming over to us where they kept on repeating their husky bark
as well as their previous manoeuvres of bobbing up and down, and ex-
posing their frightful sets of teeth. Of course we all had our guns ready
tut as we were about to raise them every head disappeared below, only
to come into view again at spots quite other than where we expected them.
The sport proved too slow for one of the Indians: he suddenly fired his
weapon, the animals escaped, and only emerged again in the
far distance. They were the first otters that I had come across.
According to what the coloured people told me, two species are found in
the Essequibo, and equal difficulties encountered in hunting them.
Whenever it receives a wound not immediately fatal, the animal dives
at once and does not appear again : I was able to convince myself of this
many times subsequently by repeated experience. I was unfortunately
not certain whether the two species that were very frequently seen in the

t Amongst the many ferns that T collected on the banks of the Essequibo are to be
found several new species which Dr. Klotzsch has already described in v. Rchlectendal's
Linnaea. Vol XVIII, Part V, under " Beitrh'gen zu einer Flora der Aequinoctialgegenden der
neuen Welt. " The genus Lindsaya especially supplied me with a auantitv of new species,
as : ScTinm^iirqlcii, c»e*ata, divaric&ta,, Hforitziana, pendula, ffradti*. Ttaddiana. Klotzsch. Besides
these I found Lindsaya reniformi* Drvander, L. trapeziformis Salisb.. L. dttlia Spreng. L atricta
Dryand., as well as AlsophiJa fernx Presl., Lviodivm nolulile Swartz, Neurophyllum pi.nnat.wm
Presl., lifertensia pe.ctina.ia Willd.. Rckiz&t* trilateralis Schkuhr, S. tleqans Swartz, S. flabellnm
Mart, Trie homanei heteropJiyllum Willd., T. pellucens Kunze, T. plttmwla Presl.,
, and Cyqthea qsyerq

THE RUPUNUNI AT LAST. 267

course of my journey are what Ray has described as Lutra "brasilienste
and Cuvier as Lutra emidris : it also remains just as doubtful whether the
one described by Azara is identical with the L. brasiliensis.

771. We met everybody in camp as busy as could be, for they had
again found an innumerable quantity of turtle eggs and hooked a large
number of tasty Phractocephalus bicolor Agass. to which we now added
our rich supply of pigeons. One finds the Phractocephalus in almost all
the Guiana rivers where it takes the hook baited with meat as greedily
as the pirai; it also gives the same grunt when pulled out of
the water. The Indians called it Pacaruima. To our great joy the
condition of the patients was unexpectedly very much improved during
the course of the day.

772. After close upon a four weeks' fight against the river and its
rapids, we reached next morning, in 3° 59' 45" lat. N., the mouth of the
Rupununi, one of the main tributaries of the Essequibo into which it
streams from the S.W. The distance from the mouth of the main river
up to that of its tributary, including bends, amounts to about 240
geographical miles; the latter lies about 320 feet higher. As the
Essequibo water has here a blackish but the Rupununi a dirty yellowish
colour, one could follow the latter stream far into the Essequibo before
both rivers, intimately merged into each other, rolled as one into the
ocean. As in their waters so do both streams also differ in their banks
and waterside vegetation. The banks of the Rupununi, on which the
varying water level is to be seen clearly defined in the horizontal streaks
of mud, consisted here of a yellowish clay mixed with sand ; they rose at
the mouth to a height of about 16 feet and were occupied only by the
water guava (Psidium aquaticum Benth. and P. aromaticum Anbl.),
associated with dense groups of the Sawari palm (Astrocaryum Jauari
Mart.) at the back, which unmistakably betrayed the poverty of the
soil. Although the mouth possessed a width of 200 yards, the bed never-
theless in certain spots had barely a depth of 3 feet, a ratio that remained
peculiar also farther up the river. It was curious that the temperature
of the blackish waters of the Essequibo registered two degrees higher
than that of the yellow Rupununi.

773. Several corials that we found tied on the southern bank gave
us the sure sign of the existence of an Indian settlement in the neigh-
bourhood. We landed as quietly as possible and were really not noticed
by the residents1 until we actually stood before them. The villagei
consisted of four large houses built upon a spot cleared of all weeds and
shaded by some calabash trees (Crescentia Cujute Linn.) covered with
many parasites and small ferns;, as well as by some large plantain trees
between which grew here and there several cotton shrubs and bushes of
Capsicum with red and yellow berries. >The open houses, in which we
saw various light frames which seemed to have been erected to protect
their possessions from the damp, indicated at the same time that this
must be a Carib settlement, which the first living person whom we saw
confirmed. In one of the houses, the floor of which, made of split Euterpe
'trunks, was four feet above the ground, so that one had to climb up to it
on a small ladder, there sat a big stout Carib painted red and white

268 THE BELL-BIRD'S FAIRY-LIKE CLING- CLANG.

engaged in plaiting. Now although our party numbered more than
forty persons, representing a real colour chart from white to black, and
filled the whole of the vacant space in front of the building, its owner did
not vouchsafe us ,the slightest attention, but continued calmly working
away as if he were the only person in the whole place. Zeno himself could
not have been more indifferent to the outside world than this Carib was.
.When our Negroes burst out laughing at anything which they particu-
larly did, on finding in the background a whole troupe of women, with
many a very pretty face amongst them, staring up at us full of surprise,
each one cast a contemptuous look upon the laughers and the next
moment turned their eyes back upon their work.

774. Irritated by his neglect we might have been standing close to
the gentleman for about a quarter of an hour without his putting aside
his assumed indifference when I at last remembered that irresistible
magic key, which had previously rendered such signal service in the
Carib settlement Kai-tan on the Cuyuni. This was produced, and as
happened there, it opened all the locks and bars that had hitherto closed
his speechless lips. The surly fellow suddenly got up, became talkative,
called us his "mattis," dropped his work, ordered his wives to bring
plantains, bananas and yams, to catch the fowls that were running about
in plenty — in fact, proved himself as obliging as we could possibly wish.
Whilst making a mental note of the altered behaviour of this son of
nature, which was solely due to his learning that strong li'quor was
present, there fell upon my ear from out of the near forest some
wondrous note such as I had never before heard. It was as if someone
were striking several harmonically tuned glass bells. I now heard them
again, and after a minute's pause, once more and yet again; there was
then a longer interval of from six to eight minutes, when the clear full
harmonic notes rang out afresh. I stood a long while spell-bound in the
hope of hearing the fairy-like ding-clang sound just once more —
silence alone followed, and I. anxiously tunned to my brother
from whom I now learnt that it was the voice of the Chasmarliynchos
earunculatus or Bell-bird as the coloured people call it. It took me but
a minute to get my gun out of the boat and ask Sororeng to accompany
me, because his sharp eyes would certainly discover the bird amidst the
green foliage more easily than mine: the latter, however, smilingly
intimated that I might just as well remain quiet where I was because
all attempts to kill the lovely songster would be fruitless, owing to its
perching only upon the extreme tree tops, where it was well out of range.
My attempt even to find it was in vain, for the limbs of the trees were so
interlaced with one another that my view was already blocked by the
first branches. No song, no note of anv one of the feathered residents
of the Guiana forests, not even the goat-sucker's voice, so distinctlv
articulate, had set me in such astonishment as the tintinnalmlary peal
of the bell-bird. I had already learnt when first stepping upon this
remarkable portion of the globe that the birds of Guiana possessed the
gift of speech, but a voice such as this had hitherto remained absolutely
unknown to me. My attention was now wholly and solely directed upon
this marvellous songster • it could not be withdrawn from it by anything

VERSUS INDIAN FASHIONS. 269

else, not even by the beautiful drums painted with hieroglyphics that Mr.
Goodall had found in one of the houses. When the magic song was
heard anew my eye rambled around into the thickly-leaved tree from
which it appeared to come, but in vain. I heard the lovely song, yet never
saw the singer.

775. I have already mentioned the really repulsive, depraved taste
with which the Carib women bind the legs of their little girls while yet
in their earliest infancy, both above and below the calves, so as to make
these swell up to a size which makes them more than human. As the
female sex here was already unusually big and corpulent, the calves
naturally shared in the peculiarity of the body, without even requiring
any artificial assistance, and the uncommonly abrupt diminution of
size in these monstrous developments along the situations where the
bands were tied accordingly appeared all the more repellent. It
reminded me of the unnatural lacing of many a beautiful European
woman who often by this means, and in accordance with the fashion,
changes the natural human waist into that of a wasp. }The covering,
something like bathing-hose, for the hips, I also found generally in use
among the women here.

776. After our chieftain, now become so obliging, had brought out
everything that he could spare, and we had. taken everything that we
required, and given him in exchange what he wanted, we continued on
our journey up the Kupununi. The evenly high banks at the mouth
already differed essentially here from one another, since at every bend
along which the current, hastened by the curvature, flowed past, it
retained its previous height, while the opposite lying stretch of bank
seemed fairly flat. Just as remarkable a difference was also displayed
in connection with the vegetation. If the river for instance took a turn
to the S.W. after having previously formed one to the N.E. the Psidium
and Sawari- palms were always scarcer there and immediately made room
in the bend for large foliage-trees, while these latter again disappeared
in inverse ratio on the north-easterly bank and in the receding bend had
completely given way to the $#?w/n-palms, so that both banks resembled
two alternate curved lines, the rises of which consisted of foliage trees
and the depressions of Sawari-palms and Psidium.

111. An innumerable number of beautiful Hia-hia parrots (Psittacus
accipitrinus Linn. ) and an equally large number of macaws enlivened the
'$aM?ari-palms around which they circled screeching enough to split one's
ears, whilst upon the outermost branches were perched whole families of
indolent and sullen carrion-crows ( Cathartes aura 111. ) with heads drawn
in, wings idle, and not worrying themselves in any way over our approach.
Our enjoyment of this varying and animated scene, which, even in the
never-ceasing hustle of the feathered residents every moment presented
fresh changes, was certainly sadly embittered by another likewise winged
occupant of the riverside. Since the commencement of the first rapids
all the mosquitoes had disappeared as if by a stroke of magic, while the
raging and roaring torrents seemed to have driven off the remaining
winged tormentors, for we had been able to look forward peacefully to the
night and calmly to the morning. With the entrance into the Rupununi,

270 CLOUDS or BLOOD-SUCKEBS.

however, our troubles began anew, because regular clouds of small'
Simulia, (Griebeln) which the Indians called Mapire moved here and
there over the water, and like harpies fell .upon us and stung our hands
and faces in the most wretched fashion. Every single bite is usually
visible for from ten to twelve days and forms a small blood-spot the size
of a pin's head. As their proboscis is extremely short, even the thinnest
clothing frustrates their criminal intentions, on which account it was only
necessary to protect our face and hands. The Indians, however, what
with their trouserless costumes, were all the more to be pitied, for it was
upon them that these insects everywhere found space to still their greed
for blood unhindered, and it was not two days that we had been plough-
ing the waters of the Rupununi before their whole bodies, but particularly
their backs, were bitten and badly swollen. In spite of the pitiful
appearance presented by these poor wretches, there was nevertheless
something uncommonly ridiculous when one of them hit another on the
back with the flat of the paddle or of the hand as soon as a crowd of
blood-suckers had collected on the man in front. Without turning
round, each man was grateful for the smack he got from the one behind,
because he k'new what it was meant for. f tie slisrtitest current of air
springing un drove the persecutins: wretches awav for a second, but' as
soon as it died down asrain we saw affd felt them around us with"
re'donble'd sanguinary 'dispositions. To afforcl ttie poor naked In'dians at
least some little relief, we searched our certainly very plain wardrobe and
supplied them with shirts. The insects were likewise equally unpleasant
owing to their continually creeping and flying into the mouth, nose and
eyes.

778. T have never succeeded in finding again any river that possessed
60 manv inland bays '(Biwhten\ as the Rupununi. These kirahaghs* as
the Indians call them, are for 'the most part fairly narrow at their point
of junction with the stream, and only widen out some way inland into
considerable basins, the play- and spawning-grounds of a number of fish,
kaimans, and water-fowl, which latter either fly around such bights in
large swarms or remain perched on the trees surrounding them. Almost
all families and genera of swamp and water fowl were represented here :
Ardea, Platatea, Cancroma, Carbo, Plotus, Alcedo, Rhynchops, Numenius,
Lams and innumerable chains of duck bestirred themselves round about
over and on the water or, screaming wildly, darted through the air. The
kaimans, only a single specimen of which we had caught sight of in the
Essequibo, were seen in the Rupununi, but particularly in large numbers
in the kirahaghs where they swim around by day looking like floating
tree-trunks. How and by what means these inland bays have arisen we
have not exactly been able to find out. Were their openings directed
against the stream, one would not for a moment have any doubt over
the cause of their origin, but these are almost universally directed down

* The present-day local Indians do not apparently recognise them under this name
the Wapisianas speak of them as Karsia. and the Macusis as Kuba. (Ed.)

JtAtMANS DlSTUBB SlflCKLE's SLUMBERS. 271

Stream while the uninterrupted bank-wall allows of them being just as
little regarded as old channels or river-beds. (The few examples that
have their openings directed really contrary to the current are to be
recognised already from a distance by their extraordinary wide mouth,
which often exceeds the bed of the river itself.

779. Several others having unfortunately joined our two patients by;
getting sick also, my brother considered it wiser to give the hands a day>
rest again. We accordingly made our way into the large AurimS bight
situate on the western shore, and soon found an excellent spot on the
raised bank, without doubt the situation of an earlier extensive Indiaui
settlement, as was easily recognised by the contrast in the size of its trees
when compared with those of the surrounding forest. Mimosae and
Solanaceae, in conjunction with cutting grass 10 to 12 feet high built the
most impenetrable thickets and an actual ''Noli me tangere" in those
spots where Mamhot, Dioscorea and Musa were previously planted andl
of which now no more traces remained. It is a curious phenomenon!
that among cultivated plants in former dwelling places I have only found
the stunted offspring, though one would be inclined to believe that those
which have already reached a certain stage of growth could not have
been so completely suppressed and crowded out by the first sprouting
Folanaceae, Mimosae,, and Passiflora — and yet this is generally the case
as soon as a settlement has been abandoned for a few years.

780. In spite of the attempts immediately made upon landing to get
possession of one of the kaimans floating around, I did not succeed in
doing so, because the bullets rebounded ineffectively from off the hard
armour-plate, and in a few cases the wearer of the same did not even
think it worth while to alter its situation and position, while in others it
swam very leisurely away. But if we wanted to get near them in a boat,
so as to obtain a sure target in their eye-sockets, they disappeared
indolently and slowly beneath the surface of the water. Remaining
quite quiet by day the animals seemed to have collected strength solely/
for the diabolical noise at nightfall, for hardly had the sun disappeared
than the wild uproar also begun. Our boats appeared to attract their;
special interest, because they approached them so closely as to make
some of the Negroes and coloured people who proposed spending the
night in them jump out pretty lively : the would-be occupants preferred
slinging their hammocks under the trees. Hamlet and Stockle,
manifestly the biggest cowards of the whole expedition, frightened at
this, did not consider even their own camp, that up to now had been
pitched close to the waterside, sufficiently safe, but untied their
hammocks as quickly as possible, and only slung them up again far from
the bank. Stockle admitted to me next morning that he had been unable
to sleep a wink on account of his trembling and quaking so much, and

that he had damned the b beast to hell, because all night through, it

had been thumping the boat with its big tail and screaming away like a
bittern; he thought nothing else than that his end had come.

781. The morning dawned on Sunday, and after prayers were read, IS
strolled along the banks with Stockle and found many an interesting
plant among which I will only mention the dainty Jonidium oppositi-

272 HAMLET is BAGGED BT THE INDIANS,

folium Sehult., the Coutoubea, spicata Aubl., Tamonea, mutiva Pers.,
ftpennera, aquatica Mart., S. circaeifolia DeC., Pectis elongata Huiub.
Bonp. and (Tricliospira, menthoides Humb. Bonp. Amongst bushes
appeared Coffea calycimi Benth., Helicteres guazumaefolia, Humb.
Bonp., Waltheria, involucrata Benth., Eugenia Schomburgkii Benth.,
E. polystachya, Eicht., Acacia, Westiana DeC. and, for the Indians, the
very important Lonchocarpus densiflorus Benth., with the milky pungent
root-juice of which these people stupefy the fish. When the Indians
want to carry out a poisoning expedition, they smash and squash up the
roots beforehand with huge wooden clubs and throw the mass into the
water at those spots where they notice the fish to be plentiful ; in about
10 to 15 minutes its effects are visible upon the scaled denizens. They rise
to the surface, spring out of the water, gasp for breath, and then turn
belly upwards, in which condition they are caught by hand or shot with
the arrow. The small finger-long fry usually die while the larger fish
generally recover after a time. Besides the Lonchocarpus densiflorus
the Indians also use for the same purpose thd Tephrosia toxicaria,
T. cinerea Pers., Phyllanthus Conami Sw., and Clibadium asperum DeC. :
none of these plants shows itself as effective as the Lonchocarpus.

782. The hunters were just as fortunate on the chase as I had been
on my botanical trip, for they not only brought several Aguti but also
the tasty Tetrao and equally dainty Psophia crepitans back to camp, the
Bite of which they found again as accurately as if they had been
conversant with these forests for years, although they, like ourselves,
had only set their foot in them for the first time to-day. A peculiar form
of ants' nest, which I mostly found on the trees in the angles of the
branches with the trunk, also had considerable interest for me. It had
quite the shape and size of an average gourd, and was constructed out of
small leaf particles and clay. Thousands of the insignificant dark in-
habitants lived together in one nest, and on the least movement fell upon
the person passing along below or upon the ground.

783. We were to learn this evening that the Indian has a talent for
ragging, and possesses a certain degree of mischief. With fairly evident
signs of scorn and contempt they, had already noticed since yesterday
how Hamlet, a man whom they already could not tolerate as a Negro,
was so terribly afraid of the kaimans. We, others, were apparently all
lying in our hammocks, and only Hamlet had still to clear away this and
that of his wares, when he also put the last piece aside and with a
contented countenance hurried off to bed. A frightful cry for help
suddenly reached us from there. We all anxiously jumped to our feet
and rushed to the spot where we found the poor devil shivering in all his
limbs and his eyes starting out of his head ; he was standing close
to his hammock as if rooted to the spot. After a long fruitless
enquiry as to what was the matter, he finally shouted out that
there was a live kaiman in his hammock. Smiling at the silly
imagination of the miserable wretch we went to examine it with lights
so as to convince him that his fears were groundless, and really found in
it a reptile four feet in length; it had been shot in the course of the
forenoon by some Indians, and had got a long bush-rope tied to its legs.

STRENGTH OF CHARACTER. 273

One of the practical jokers had probably dragged the animal into it,
waited for the owner to come and lie down, and at the very same moment
pulled on the rope, but had then made himself scarce because we never
succeeded in finding the culprit. Although the poor black devil was able
to convince himself that he had only been made a fool of, he continued
standing there in the sam-j spot where we had found him shivering like
an aspen leaf and crying like a child, and no power on earth could have
got him into his hammock now. We were at first angered over the silly
joke, but nevertheless had at last to join in with the general laughter
that rose through the whole camp. In the morning we found that Hamlet
had quietly sneaked close to us where he had made a camp for himself;
fearing a repetition of the banter he probably did not feel too safe
anywhere else.

784. Our patients feeling somewhat improved by the Monday, we
resumed our journey and found upon the sandbanks even yet numbers of
turtle eggs, which however had to be fairly carefully examined before
eating, because in the greatest number of cases the young animal had
already begun to develop.* Towards mid-day we once more reached a
settlement, this being occupied by Caribs and some Macusis jointly. The
large houses of the Macusis varied completely in shape and construction
from all Indian houses that I had hitherto seen in the coastal region.
They were erected of four six-foot high clay walls, upon which the roof
rested and the small door was, the only opening to be found in the whole
building. Had not a fire, above which a small frame with fish and flesh
spread out on top was to be seen, been burning in the centre of the building
and at least lighted it up somewhat, Egyptian darkness would have
reigned inside. The door was exit and entrance not only for human beings
ond animals, but also for smoke, light and air. The Oarib houses cor-
responded entirely Avith those of their fellow- tribesmen elsewhere. Of
the male residents we found at home only the chieftain and another man,
both of them very aged people ; all the others had taken a trip to George-
town. Amongst the women, painted to an unusual extent with Gcnina,
juice, Sororeng drew our attention to a young and very pretty one . of
whom he told us a fact that really betokened something more than ordin-
ary female strength of character and endurance. Her husband had also
undertaken the trip to town with the others and had made up his mind
for her to accompany him, a proposition that she resisted with all her
might and main, but to which she at last apparently was forced to submit.
Even at the eleventh hour she showed every imaginable sign of opposition
so as to move her husband to let her stay, but he was not to be shaken in
his resolution. In vain they searched for her one morning in Waraputa
where the party spent several days ; the young woman had vanished and
remained so. Through the densest of forests, across all torrents, rivers,

* Among the plants I found in this area of the Rupununi I may note here the beautiful
Pfirea macrostaclya Benth., Copai/era pubiflora Benth., Pitkecololium pitbetcent Benth.,
Jiissiaea affinix DeC., Schnella rvUgi-noaa, Benth., 5. spleivlens Benth.. Licania aperta Benth.
L. fioribunda Benth., Faramea 1o»p\folia Benth., Alsodeia Ipxiflora Benth., all new specie*?
which m brother had already found on his first journey.

274 ELEGANTLY- WORKED WAR- CLUBS.

and streams, she returned to the Kupununi by way of the western bant
of the Essequibo. Over pathless areas, and without further nourishment
beyond what the bushes and trees offered her, she performed the
journey in nine days when, after having had to swim across the Rupununi,
she suddenly appeared in the village dead-tired, and torn to pieces with
the thorns and cutting-grass; besides this, the heroic woman' was all the
time momentarily looking forward to her confinement. We had required
three weeks for the same trip. Sororeng at our request learnt from the
woman, upon whom, owing to this report, our whole interest was
naturally centred, that she had always kept the Essequibo on her left,
but with that had cut across all bends, so that she had, of course, reached
the Rupununi much sooner than would have been possible by travelling
up the stream. She at the same time assured us that beyond the belts of
rock she had met with no special difficulties. Certainly the welcome that
she received from her husband on his return could not have been quite
the friendliest. On my return to Georgetown I wanted to pay her another
visit, but found the settlement abandoned and the place already wholly
restored to Nature.

785. We learnt from the old chieftain that the Brazilians were not
only still in possession of Pirara, but had led all the Macusis of the village
into slavery, which latter information, however, was not subsequently
confirmed. Naturally, having to accept the news as true, and the expedi-
tion bearing despatches wherein the arrival of the armed force would be
notified to the Brazilian commander, my brother took some of the crews
out of the other boats so as to reach Haiowa village, which still lay two
days' distant from here, as quickly as possible; he hoped to be able to
make more definite enquiries there. After a stay of several hours we
left the settlement and my brother's corial soon disappeared out of our
range of vision.

786. The banks of the Rupununi rose more and more, but in certain
situations, as soon as the general precipitousness relaxed but a little,
were nevertheless covered with vegetation down to the water's edge.
When at night we wanted to pitch camp we had first of all to cut a path
up to the top of tile slope.

787. Hardly had we started on our way next morning when we saw a
number of Indians garbed in their most beautiful finery standing in front
of us on the bank; they seemed to be expecting us, as indeed happened
to be the case. They had probably heard casually from the Indian crew
of the corial hurrying ahead, that we would soon be following, and now
wanted to see us pass. Besides the really artistic feather-hats (Arro)
the men wore particularly big necklaces (Poeng-Kere) of Dicotyles fangs,
from which long tassels of toucan skins hung down their backs. Their
huge and elegantly worked war-clubs which they called Taiken attracted
the whole of my attention, and the wounds inflicted by them upon one
another in battle must be frightful. Attached to the handle, that was
wound round with cotton thread with long cotton tassels hanging down
as ornaments, was a thick sling of the same material through which the

is stuck so as to make it impossible for his opponent to wrest the

CERTAIN APES KEEP THEMSELVES SELECT. 275

club from the owner while fighting. Although I offered them knives and
other objects for the clubs, they refused to part with them though they
willingly bartered the elegant feather hats. Their settlement lay several
hundred paces in from the waterside, but the time did not admit of my
accompanying them there.

788. .Wherever the foliage of the banks became thicker, the branches
swarmed with monkeys, of which the really pretty bushy-tail Hurua
apes (Pithccia chiropotes Geoffr.) constituted the greatest number.
The beautifully-parted long hair and abundant proud beard and
whiskers, wrhich on my return I hardly found surpassed by those of
young Germany, as well as the long-haired fox-like tails, lent the livel/
intelligent looking animals an unusually friendly, but at the same time
comical, appearance. Being the first seen on my trip, I naturally had to
jump on land and try my luck in hunting which on this occasion proved
successful. I shot a male and female, though almost regretted my
action on hearing the latter's pitiful yelp of agony, enough to pierce one's
heart, she being only badly wounded: it sounded exactly like the bitter
cry of a child in pain. The beard of the female is not so thick and long,
neither is the tail so bushy as that of the male. I never met them again
FO plentifully as here on the Rupununi. The howler monkeys (Mycetes)
already before sunrise, and always squatting with their faces turned
towards it, commenced their horrible noise from the highest tree-
lops: at sunset they sang it a deafening slumber song. It is extra-
ordinary that the Mycetes are never found associated with other species,
but keep strictly apart from the remaining light-footed gentry. This is
also the case with Pithecia chiropotes and P. leucoccphala, while the roll-
tail apes Cebus ape'lla, C. capucinus and often CalUthrix are found
in company. The flesh of the Mycetes, except for the peculiar smell
which is like that of our billy goat, is fairly tasty. It is only after the
Indian has scalded or singed its hair, and put it in the pot, or, for
purposes of roasting, has stuck it on a wooden spit, that one's antipathy
is roused on seeing it in this condition for the first time. One cannot
but believe that he must be sharing a cannibal feast at which a little baby
is being set before him, and it certainly requires great strength of mind
for anybody with a stomach at all sensitive to take knife and fork to such
a dish. After I had skinned my Pithcciae the carcases were claimed by
the Indians for their breakfast, to supplement the tail of a young kaiman
that they had killed during my absence This latter spoil seemed to me
nicer than I had expected ; the cooked flesh looked snow-white, and had
quite the taste of the larger fish.

789. The palms now became more plentiful, there soon being
associated with the genera hitherto exclusively prevailing a number of
Bactris, Geonoma, Maximiliana, the elegant Euterpe edulis Mart, and the
peculiar Desmoncus polyacanthus Mart., which cannot keep upright of
itself and accordingly has to cling on to other trees and bushes with
the sharp barbs of its leaves, if it wants to raise its lanky top heaven-
ward, and not creep along the ground. The latter is certainly just as
dangerous as the "pimpler" palms and often enough, in following up
game on my hunting excursions, has it held me back at the cost of much

276 TEE SAVANNAH BREEZE.

agony or a portion of my light clothing. Wherever the bank was low it
was thickly covered with guava bush that spread its smooth branches far
over the surface of the water.

790. A huge sandbank offered us a comfortable night's lodging, an
invitation that we gladly accepted because we were anxious to strike
camp soon after midnight, so as to reach the Macusi village of Haiowa
early in the morning. The peculiar noise produced by the Muscovy duck
(Anas moschata) on starting to rise, indicated already before landing,
that our approach must have driven off whole flocks of them from their
resting place. Everybody seized his weapon on hearing the well-known
sound and as they flew over our heads the general salvo brought down a
brace. They were two males of unusual size, and at the same time proved
a welcome addition to supper. The Indians just in the same way shot
some Plotus.

791. About midnight I called out to the captains to strike camp.
The moon diffused her bright enchanting light over the stream now
smooth as a mirror, as well as over the densely-foliaged banks, while
except for the measured stroke of the paddles, nothing disturbed the
deadly silence that reigned throughout the whole of Nature. We might
already have been travelling a few hours when through the oppressive
sultriness a cooler breath of air, which the Indians welcomed as the
refreshing savannah breeze, blew suddenly towards us1. This often
uncommonly violent wind is in the interior what the cool sea breeze is on
the coast, because like it, it springs up daily. It usually rises of an
evening about eight o'clock as a soft cooling north-easter, which towards
midnight reaches its maximum strength when, like a whirlwind, it sweeps
over the savannah, then gradually takes off towards daybreak, and at
sunrise suddenly veers round to the eastward.

792. Now at last, after a period of five weeks' continuous restraint
within dense natural walls, for which we had been compensated only
occasionally by the prospect of a more or less remote mountain-range, our
eyes were to ramble free and unrestricted over a wider area, and it is of
no use denying that I waited with impatience for break of day, for the
far-reaching savannah where, so often subsequently, I disconsolately
turned my gaze towards the distant horizon to discover a dark fringe
of forest. With the approach of dawn, things around began to hum, in
that the members of the thousandnvoiced concert party started trying
their voices, the curious deep drumming of the hokko-hens that was heard
repeated on all sides affording us the first sign of it. The overture com-
menced, and in it were soon joined notes of all kinds, high and low, from
out of throats known and unknown, amongst which the yelling screams
and whistles of the swarms of monkeys played the chief part. It seemed
as if the latter were reminding their still sleeping comrades that the
day was breaking. What with the uproar amongst the branches of the
trees indicating that a pack of them was just then advancing along the
opposite side, and the deep bass notes of the hokko-hens sounding far too
temptingly, I could not remain anv longer in the boat. With gun in
hand, accompanied by an Indian, also with his, we jumped on shore and
made our way into the gloomy forest We soon saw two hokko-Jiena

FIRST AID ON A MONKEY. 277

perched upon the lowest limbs of a tree ahead of us ; they were just
drumming their welcome to the dawn. As quick as thought we up with
our guns but waited in vain for the report — the night dew had damped
the loading and the birds did not wait for us to refill. A gradually
increasing chatter in the branches betrayed the approach of a troupe of
monkeys taking the high road over our heads, and pressed close to a tree
we lay in wait. First came the advance forces, and then the main army
which took perhaps a quarter of an hour to pass ; this was followed by
the rear-guard which, through my laughter that could no longer be
suppressed, scattered in all directions. But who could help laughing if
he saw the sprightliness of the nimble creatures skipping along over the
branches in exaggerated haste, and heard the crying, the piping, and
the whistling of the weaker ones, or noted the malicious looks these threw
at the stronger specimens which had bitten or beaten them for getting in
their way ; if he watched the precocious faces of the youngsters regularly
glued on to their mothers' backs and at the same time observed how
earnestly they searched for insects on every leaf, in every crevice, as they
passed along, and noted how cleverly a flying beetle, or a butterfly would
here and there be caught upon the wing? It was with antics such as
these that some 4 to 500 Cebus capucinus and C. apella must have hurried
past up above us, for they did not seem to understand any other kind of
motion at all, before I could restrain my risible instincts any longer. As
if thunderstruck, as if held by magic, the individuals that happened to
be directly over our heads sat stock-still for a moment, uttered a peculiar
cry that found its echo in front, behind, and close by, and then looked
anxiously around in all directions until, on recognising our presence, they
stared at us for a second, repeated their cry still more shrilly than at
first, and in redoubled haste regularly sprang away, without any other
sound being heard than the extra clattering in the branches. If wo
wanted to take at least a hunting trophy back to the boats, it was now the
best time to shoot. With the h ear tren dins screjuns of one with its front
paw smashed by small-shot, and of another that was mortally wounded,
several indeed of those that had made their escape returned ; upon
noticing us, however, they deemed it wiser to rejoin the precipitate rout
and leave their comrades to their fate. After long and vainless attempts to
follow the others, a somewhat too risky spring at last brought down both
the wounded ; they fell just between the two of us. The fright of the one
must indeed have been terrible: sitting on its haunches, with widely
opened jaws and unable to utter a sound, it glared at us for a while,
and then ran off and tightly clutched its dead mate lyin^ not far off.
Docile and without a struggle it allowed us to tie and bring it to the
boat where we splinted and carefully bandaged the smashed limb. It
submitted to the operation without a growl or sign of resistance and
only gave a short cry of agony with a truly beseeching and pitiful look
when the pain got too bad or the bandage was put on too tight. On
completion of the ordeal it ran under my seat in the boat and kept quite
quiet, continuing to look at the dressings all the while.

793. The vegetation along the left bank was already gradually be-
coming less and less dense and the cool refreshing wind always stronger

278 A PA&TY 6r MACKJSIS STRIKE CAMP.

and more comforting when the former all of a sudden disappeared com-
pletely and the broad savannah reached down to the riverside. A halt
was now called and we quickly climbed the steep bank, not for our eyes
to ramble over the broad expanse but only to be still more obstructed by
the grass more than six feet high. Owing to its thick growth, and the
still denser virgin forest near by, we could see nothing but the isolated
Makarapan Kange, probably rising from out of the immense plain, with
its reefs and ridges just in the act of being fringed with gold in the early
sunshine, as well as some other mountain chains towering over one
another like terraces in the far north and east.

794. That the calorific rays of the morning sun exerted increased
vital activity in the plants was demonstrated to us on our return to the
boats by the balsamic fragrance that had distributed itself through the
whole atmosphere. In the midday hours this generally disappears
completely.

795. We soon afterwards passed on the right bank the mouth of the
Taraqua (Kewa or Quitaro of the maps), one of the largest tributaries
flowing into the Rupununi. According to the statements of the Indians
it arises on the northern slope of the Carawaimi Kange, then turns
towards north-west through the mountain chain of the Sierra Taripona,
now flows in a half circle round the foot of an extremely remarkable
granite pyramid which the Indians call Ataraipu (Devil's rock) and
shortly afterwards joins with the Rewa that conies here from the south-
east, whereupon they continue their combined course to the Rupununi.
The district between the Rewa is thickly forested and quite uninhabited.

• 796. We had not left the mouth far behind when suddenly 'an
uncommonly lively scene presented itself before our eyes : a party of
Macusis seemed to have just struck camp and were about to resume their
journey up-stream in three corials. I gazed in astonishment at the
motley crowd, and the active bustle in its heterogeneous composition,
which formed the most faithful pendant to some gipsy encampment such
as at the present day only Spain possesses. Red-coloured hammocks
in which many of the worshipful house-masters were still lying at their
ease and whence they were comfortably watching the strenuous efforts
of the women dragging the remaining objects to the boats, were slung in
between the green trees or else upon stakes driven into the ground.
Over there, small boys were pulling a refractory monkey by the leg
towards the corials: over here, a little girl was hurrying with some
parrots in the same direction. Women with sucklings that huddled in a
sling hung over, the left shoulder, were carrying in their freed hand
the dull and blackened kitchen-ware to the boats where ill-tempered dogs
squatted in the bows and hoarsely barked at usi. Blue columns of smoke
from out of the ash-heaps of already burnt-down fires rose here and there
in the calm atmosphere and spread out their capitals in between the river-
side foliage now moistened with the morning dew. As soon as the men
noticed us they very quickly got out of their hammocks, put on their
lovely feather hats, came to the bank, stared at tis in surprise, and called
out "Matti," a greeting that we heartily responded to.

.797. Just a»s the Indians had had their turn of staring at us, so it

THE VICTORIA REGIA. 279

was soon mine to stare at a plant which with its leaves and blossoms
showed up conspicuously from out of a small current-less bight. It was
the magnificent Victoria rcgia, Schomb. with its rounded leaves from five
to six feet in diameter and its beautiful huge flowers: the petals from
periphery to centre merged from white through a series of the softest of
tints to a moist rosy red, and filled the whole neighbourhood with their
lovely scent. Stockle and I at the same time quickly bent down over the
edge of the corial to break off so wonderf ul a blossom when, as if bitten by
a tarantula we speedily withdrew our hands, our thoughtless haste
receiving a fairly painful lesson from the f-inch long sharp but yet
elastic spines. As my brother has already exhaustively described the
whole plant I refrain from further details. A number of water-fowl,
duck, and small heron ran around on the plate-like leaves and gave
chase to many insects that seemed to collect there. In silent wonder I
gazed upon this rare plant, and only after a long while cautiously
possessed myself of some of the blossoms by means of a cutlass, though
it was unfortunately impossible to dry them. It was surprising that
among the rich number of specimens not a single young plant was to be
seen.

798. From now; on the western bank was enclosed with a smaller
wooded border to which the savannah was directly joined; the
eastern one on the contrary remained thickly forested. .We had just
turned a sharp bend when from the foot of the approximately 30-foot
high bank we saw Haiowa* rising 011 the summit and my brother's flag
waving towards us. A number of Indians who were pressing close
around one of the buildings indicated yet from the river the exact spot
that my brother was occupying. After fastening our boats -at the
landing and climbing the height, I was at a loss to know in which
direction I ought first to turn my attention because, while captivated by
the charming surroundings of the village, the beautiful outlook over the
savannahs spreading far to the northward was tempting me to peep in the
distance. A number of small groups of foliage trees, bushes or palms
were dotted here and there over the immense yellow-green grassy plain,
like pleasant islands in an ocean waste, while the mighty isolated 4,000 ft.
high Makarapan Range rose from out amidst this lovely landscape and
the bleak Sierra Pacaraima with its 1,500 ft. high eastern spur limited
the extensive view. The Pacaraima Range extends pretty well 200 miles
to the westward and forms at the same time in the north the watershed
between the basin of the Orinoco and the Esse^uibo, in the south that of
the Rio Branco, a tributary of the Amazon, as well as the boundary7 line
between the immense savannahs of Southern, and the luxuriant virgin
forests of Northern, Guiana.

799. In the settlement itself the liveliest activity reigned, for my
brother in the spacious strangers' quarters, which, like the houses on the
coast, was open on all sides, was just then busily engaged in paying for
the large quantities of cassava bread, plantains, yams, bananas, fowls,

* The site of this settlement is said to have been on the left bank opposite a spot
known to the present-day Macusis as Addawa (Ed,)

280 ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF TRIBES.

smoked fish, etc. that the bucks and buckeens had brought forward.;
Like the pedlar at the annual fair of a country town around whom crowds
of strong and lusty peasant girls collect and glance with wistful eyes at
all the glittering but worthless gew-gaws spread before him, so stood my
brother behind his many boxes filled with motley-coloured glass beads,
knives, scissors and other trifles surrounded by the light brown but
beautifully developed buckeens, who gazed with longing looks upon the
tempting beads, the only articles that almost all of them wanted. The
woman will sell everything for beads, which constitute her sole finery,
while the man, like a peacock, will decorate himself with the most
motley-coloured plumage of every, feathered occupant of the forest. The
greatest ornament of the Macusi Indian woman — for the acquirement of
which she redoubles her exertions in the field, because all the fruits of
it that are not wanted in the household can be sold by her to procure
these showy things if nothing: else is required — are the wide strings of
beads which she wears wound around her legs and arms, and out of
which she makes her apron-belt.

800. Without doubt the Macusis, whose district includes the
savannahs of the Rupununi, the Parima, and the mountain chains of
the Pacaraima and Canuku, belong to the most beautiful tribes of
Guiana, just as they likewise constitute at the present time one of its
most numerous ones. Their skin colour, like that of the Arawaks, is
tolerably light, and with it their features have something uncommonly
gentle and pleasant which is more or less enhanced by the Roman, Greek
or Mulatto nose. Their figure is slender and generally well proportioned.
The men wrear their hair almost always short, the women on the contrary
having it nicely tidied and hanging down over the neck and shoulders or
else rolled together in long plaits wound on top of the head. Their
speech is something unusually euphonious and has much resemblance to
French, the largest number of their words ending in — ong, — eng, or
— ang. ..That they are an unusually peaceable tribe is already confirmed
by the circumstance that all the slave raids by the Caribs and
other tribes were made in the territory of the Macusis, as in more
recent times similar raids were made by the Brazilians. Peaceable and
harmless as is the tribe, it showed itself equally as obliging, hospitable,
and industrious during our lengthy stay in its settlements, and it
possesses one rare superiority shared by only a few others, its great love
of order and cleanliness. Polygamy is certainly practised, though one
finds it but very rarely. They also colour their face and body thickly
with Bignonia Chica and Genipa Americana paint; the women, who are
not less indifferent to finery, particularly do this and try to increase
their natural beauty as much as possible by external artificial means, in
which connection they set an especially high value upon their long and
beautiful brilliant black hair which one always finds cleanly combed and
anointed with crab oil. (Their ear lobes and, among the men. the nasal
septum, were bored. In the holes the men wore the finger-long round
little bits of stick or thin pieces of cane, and I noticed among both'
sexes, without exception, a small round opening in the under lip through

FEMALE DECORATOR. 281

which, as in the case of the Caribs, a pin with the tip outside was stuck.
Several women wore gold coins on their bead necklaces, a demonstration
that they knew the value of money a little or not at all : amongst the
coastal tribes one might search in vain for such a decoration. The
apron-belts (Mosa) of the women consisted of a sort of bead embroidery,
with pretty angular figures a la Grec, which had some resemblance to
those hieroglyphics that we found in Waraputa. These aprons seemed
to be their greatest pride, just as they also constituted their chief finery.
One also saw similar figures, painted roughly with the fingers or a piece
of wood, in white clay, in red or black colours, upon the walls of the
houses, on the paddles, corials, weapons, etc. It is strange that it is
only the women who do the painting. Is the man ashamed of the art,
or does the woman only possess the talent for it? When my brother on
his previous journey was staying with the Taruinas, they informed him
that the picture writing, which he discovered there on several of the
boulders lying round about "had been cut in by the women ages and ages
ago." As soon as the husband has finished an implement of any kind, a
weapon or similar article, he hands it over to his wife who now starts
on its artistic complicated painting without any pattern or other
guidance than her own inborn individual love of art as it were.*

801. The settlement consisted of twelve houses with about 60 resi-
dents. The houses for the most part corresponded with those already
met with on the Rupununi and only a few that were not quadrangular
but round varied from them in regard to model. If a new structure,
whether a square or a round one, is to be built, they drive seven-foot
high posts into the ground fairly close to one another, plait these
together with thin laths and then fill in the interspaces with wet clay.
The rafters that correspond exactly with those of our own simple
buildings except that they are not fixed with pins but tied together with
the toughest bush-rope, are carried upon some big posts raised in the
middle of the house. The leaves of the Maximiliana regia form the roof.
The quadrangular houses called to mind our small peasants' huts
covered with straw. The roof of the round (bee-hive) houses
(Hauserthiirmchen) is also round and runs up into a long point ending
at the top of the central main post on to which the remaining rafters
are tied in a circle at their upper ends, while their lower ones project
considerably beyond the sub-structure and so give the building the
appearance of some Chinese construction which, with its elegantly
sloping roof, makes quite a pretty picture.

802. Having already described the interior of such a building I will
only add that the whole household furniture consisted of hammocks
woven out of cotton thread like a net with large meshes; small wooden
stools that, cut out of a piece of wood, represented rough similes of all
kinds of animals — but were almost only used by the women, as the men
preferred Squatting on their heels ; hollowed-out calabashes of all shapes

* It is to be feared that, beyond the painting of the earthenware, this statement of the
decorative work being limited to the female sex is based on insufficient evidence. (Ed).

282 HIGH STANDABD or TECHNIQUE.

and sizes that served as water-holders; together with some simple clay
cooking utensils and a number of square plaited baskets in which they,
store their ornaments, bits of clothing, when they are so fortunate as to
possess any, and gew-gaws of other kinds. On the hammock there als>
hangs the owner's toilette which consists of a piece of bambu filled with
rouge-paint, a comb, and a small looking-glass; the European frame is
generally removed from the glass and replaced by a new and more
durable one in which this costly article of finery has less chance
of being broken. The main beam of the house is usually decorated
with the hunting trophies of the owner: deer-horns, jaguar
skulls, eagle claws, etc., and together with them the war-clubs, the
curious blow-pipe and the feather hats art hung on it. The innumerable
arrows and a number of bows lie on the cross-beams. Judging from
the large quantity, as well as from the neatness and accuracy with which
everything was manufactured, it was very evident that this tribe must
be far more industrious than the coastal ones. The whole of their wooden,
implements were neatly polished and painted, fheir weapons ornamented
with motley feathers, and their plaitwork so well made in respect to
the designs worked in with red or black, likewise d la Grec, that the best
European professional workmanship could hardly match them for neat-
ness, but certainly never as regards durability. That their household
implements and their ornaments, irrespective of their utility, have a
special value in their eyes, from an artistic point of view alone,
can be recognised in the fact that they only saw their way to bartering
them when they inevitably required some European article or other.
>To barter a blow-pipe was still more difficult, probably due to the reason
that they only get these from the Arekunas and Maiongkongs in exchange
for their frightful vegetable poison Urari on which they accordingly set
so high a value because the plant only grows in certain spots on the
Canuku range (Sierra Conokon.) It is at all events striking that the
neatness and accuracy both of weapons and implements as well as a
livelier industrial activity in general becomes always more distinct and
evident, the farther one penetrates from the coast into the interior.*
Only in one manufacture — pottery ware — are the occupants of the latter
inferior to the former. Inside the houses, at different spots, small fires
are continually kept burning, either under a small staging covered
with the cut-up produce of the chase so as to get it smoked, or between
three stones upon which, like our tripods, rest large pots to boil possibly
^cme drink or bit of meat. Snarling dogs lie in close circles around these
fires like faithful watchmen.

803. As our party consisted of 48 head, and we proposed staying
several days, there developed to be sure an otherwise probably unusual
hustle and bustle in the little village which already had received word
of our arrival from a family that were just returning home to Haiowa
as we landed at Waraputa. We accordingly met with an abundant supply

* The reason is very probably due to proportionately less intimate contact with inferior
races, i.e.,- the negro and low-class European. (Ed).

MACUSI SALTJTATIO^ CEREMONIES. 283

of cassava bread, etc., already mentioned, and to their very great joy, our
Indians found a huge trough filled with paiwari and many a vessel with
casiri, to both of which they diligently did justice. The information
we had received in the previous settlement, according to which the
Brazilians had made slaves of a number of Macusis, proved to be false ;
we were, however, indeed assured that several soldiers were to be seen in
Pirara and that all the former residents, with the exception of two
families, had withdrawn to the Canuku Eange.

804. The house with which we were accommodated for our residence
lay immediately upon the summit of the high bank and permitted the
most unrestricted outlook over the lovely and delightful landscape at
our feet. By next morning we received a surprise, with a new change in
the life of our surroundings. Soon after sunrise, that is to say, a
small fleet of corials manned by Indians, with brilliant feather ornaments,
came down the stream otherwise so abandoned and lonely, and stopped
at the Haiowa landing-stage to pay the residents a visit on their way to
Georgetown, where they intended going with the produce of their
industry, i.e., spun cotton, hammocks and the like. After getting out of
the boats and arranging themselves in the usual procession with war-
clubs, bows and arrows in their hands, — while many yet had stuck a long
knife under the lap-cloth belt or else had it hanging from a cotton cord
round the neck like a bandolier, — they clambered up the bank, and,
without condescending to recognise us, passed on their way to thvi
strangers' house where the chief with his people was already awaiting
them. The salutation ceremonies, of which I had already been witness
during my stay among the Warraus and Waikas, were repeated here in
almost similar fashion, except that here those who were talking did not
look at one another, but engaged in conversation with faces turned
aside. When I enquired the reason, I was told that dogs might look at
one another when they met, but Macusis didn't. If a Macusi comes into
ordinary intercourse anywhere with another, he just says "I come," to
which the other replies, "Art thou there?" or "Comest thou?" But if a
ceremonial visit is being paid by a. foreign tibesman or equal in rank
the visitor has to be addressed first; if there are several, then the same
questions are repeated, according to the dignity and age of the stranger!
The chieftain or housemaster welcomes the solemn and slowly approach-
ing guests at the front of the house near the door and bids them enter.
When the strangers have got inside, the mistress of the house brings
forward a stool or a block of wood and the master says : "Be thou there,"
whereupon the guest replies "I say, yes," and the former now adds :
"There's a stool, sit down." The stool will now be described by the
owner as bad, whereupon the guest continues "It is good," and adds still
other encomiums, compliments and greetings which are renewed with
every visitor. As the wife first of all sets before the visiting chieftain a
little basket with cassava bread and pepperpot into which the former
i» dipped, the same apologies, the same compliments are repeated. Each
having eaten, the particular scene is renewed with the calabash full of
paiwari or casiri. Upon the stranger chieftain finishing his meal he
assures each of his fellow guests that he is satisfied, an assurance which

A GIANT £RESH- WATER FISH.

the host also receives. The same thing happens with the others, whq
make the same declaration at first to the visiting chief and then to the
remainder participating, according to their status and age. If, however,
one of the guests during the gathering, is forced to go outside, he will be
welcomed on his return just as if he were only come for the first time.

805. The conversation was generally carried on in a sing-song, one
might almost say, plaintive tone and the acquiescence in the credibility
of, and astonishment at, the narrator was expressed by the repetition of
the last words with the addition of "Na" or "Wa."" The younger
Indians constitute only the audience, and although they have heard the
thing twenty times already, make believe that they are extremely
astonished at what is said. The departure is accompanied by the
eame ceremonial.

806. Though such a scene offers so little variety, it is by no means
uninteresting, and I have always been glad to see and hear their saluta-
tion ceremony and talk-talk, particularly as they are the exact reverse
of our European pour-parlers, for over here one encourages the speaker
at most with a "Wa" or *<Na" or "Una," but never interrupts him. The
adventures of the chase, and fishery, and their travels are naturally the
main subjects of conversation when they will correctly define each place
and tree where they caught this or that game, and this or that fish, or
where they built their benabs, etc.

807. Next morning the Indians brought us, besides a number of
other fish, the fresh-water giant of Guiana, the Sudis gigas Cuv., the
Arapaima of the Macusis. We gazed in astonishment at the huge
monster that almost filled the whole of the corial, measured perhaps
eight feet, and certainly ran up to 200 Ibs. in weight : among the rivers
of British Guiana, the Rupununi is the only one that possesses it, and in
considerable quantities, too. In the Rio Branco, Rio Negro and Amazon
it is said to be also fairly plentiful. The Arapaima is both caught as well
with the hook, as killed with the bow and arrow ; in the latter case, its
capture is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and liveliest of the
fisher's art, for several corials generally take part in it and distribute
themselves over the water. As the fish is recognised, the signal is given.
The corial with the best shots noiselessly makes its way up to within
shooting distance, the arrow flies from the string, and both it and fish
disappear. Now they all join in the hunt, and the arrow's feathered end
hardly appears above the surface affain before everyone's bow is on the
stretch : the fish is seen and stuck with a new lot of arrows, passes out of
sight, to allow itself to be recognised again within a shorter interval and
so receiving fresh charges, at last falls a prey to the hunters. It is now
floated to a shallow spot, the corial that has been filled with water, and
pushed underneath, is then bailed out, and the monster brought in
triumph to the settlement. The fish has one of the most variegated scaly
cuirasses imaginable, for not only the scales, but also the fins differ in
colour and shine in the most varied shades of dark grey, red, and
carmine. Although very tasty it is not eaten by the Macusis, but is
relished all the more by the Caribs.

* TSTa is the Macusi .affirmative : Wa, amongst other meanings, expresses something of
the idea of " Right ! 0 !" (Ed.)

A SAVANNAH FIRE BY NIGHT. 285

808. Among remaining fish to be found here is the equally brilliant
Osteoylossum bicirrhosum Spix., which the Macusis call Arowana, with
the edges of its scales also shining in red, blue, and purple, the
Xiphostoma Cuvicri Spix., the Myletcs latus Miiller, Troscli., Pygopris-
tis fumarius Miiller, Trosch., Herrasalmo aureus Spix. and several repre-
sentatives of the genera Cichla, Crcnicichla and Pygocentrm.

809. This very same day that had dawned so full of interest for me,
was to close in just the same way. It was late in the afternoon that I
was yet in front of our house busily engaged in cleaning the head and
preparing the skin of the Sutlis when I noticed some dark columns of
smoke rising in the distant north-west, but troubled myself no further
until Sororeng again drew my attention to them by the statement that
the hunters of a distant settlement over there had fired the savannah to
drive the deer out of the high grass. The sun was just beginning to
disappear, and the black clouds, now increasing in extent, \vere already
coloured yellow and reddish, when there soon developed before our
astonished gaze a night picture that can only be compared with Achra-
mucra, but which it is just as impossible to describe in detail. All I can
do is to plan an outline, a sketch of the really thrillingly beautiful
scene of the burning savannah : it served to represent the real article
as depicted in Cooper's prairie- fires that had so often filled me with
silent rapture and inward awe. The eye could now distinguish in the
far north-west several pillars of fire that gradually joined into one
single column which, sharply defined on the dark background of the
clouded sky, shed a grey-yellow tint upon the overcast masses of cloud
as well as the gloomy Makarapan and Pacaraima Kanges, and made them
look like pallid spectral giants emerging from the sombre layers of
atmosphere. As quick as thought I might say, the huge mass of fire rolled
itself along before the wind like the billows of an evenly moving ocean,
and a moment later, the hills or groups of trees that had only just recently
been illumined were swallowed up in the profound darkness. The column
of fire now hurried on its way up the wooded slope of a hill or mountain,
until it disappeared just as quickly on the side turned away from us, and
thereupon, as was to be seen by the flare striding ahead, soon showed itself
afresh on another hill, or, it separated just as suddenly, into a number of
smaller tentacles of flame which then, like giant Wills-o'-the-wisp, seemed
to dance around the intervening black spaces, that were presumably
swamps, bogs, rivulets or some of the larger oases. The separation,
however, did not last long. The open tentacles soon closed in, and joined
again, when as a single stream of fire it continued anew its destructive
course over hill and dale until it finally disappeared behind one of the
larger masses of mountains. So far, the thrillingly beautiful scene had
been keeping a fair distance away ; yet with the rapidity of lightning the
right wing of the fire column kept rolling closer and closer in our
direction. The strong lights and shadow's became more glaring, the
black pillars of smoke more sharply defined ; tind now was to be heard
the dull crackle of the giant grasses and 6 to 8 ft. high reeds as they
were being split by the heat, the uproar changing every minute into the
regular indiscriminate and deafening musketry fire of a battle in full
swing. Forming an impassable barrier to the fiery element on the south-

286 EFFECTS OF A SAVANNAH FIRE.

east, the Kupununi again at peace, reflected on its unruffled surface the
columns of flame that, like a whirlwind, were rushing on to its banks. We
continued watching this wild dash in dumb astonishment long after it
had passed until finally it was completely lost to sight.

810. The broad savannah stared black and dreary at us next morning.
A black pall was spread over the yellow-green carpet that up to yester-
day was so pleasant and full of life, and the partially burnt leafless limbs
of the riverside and savannah trees towered gloomily into the heated
atmosphere, while huge whirlwinds were everywhere building right up
to the skies dark columns of dust and ashes out of which innumerable
charred half -burnt leaves and leaf -stalks were slung in extensive spirals.
Hundreds of hoarsely-croaking birds of prey circled around the gloomy
flats to tear in pieces the mammals and amphibians that had perished in
the flames. The black shroud even clothed the cheerless mountains in
the distance. It was only the fronds of the beautiful groups of Mauritia
•flexuosa that continued to make a show of their full flush of life, because
owing to the height of the trunks they had remained beyond reach of the
conflagration. The edges of some of the oases also appeared black, and
whirling. columns of smoke yet rose up out of many, the fire having
probably found lasting nourishment in a fallen tree, while far on the
horizon, away out in the infinite distance, the dark pillars, continuing to
ascend, showed that it was still pursuing its devastating course.

811. Should the traveller return to the scene of desolation after a
fortnight's absence he looks around in surprise and searches everywhere
for some mark or sign to make sure that he is not dreaming, whether it
is really the same flat before him, or if wizardry is not making sport of
him. The pall has disappeared, the sombre shroud of sorrow has
changed into the gay green garment of life, of a European May. Never
idling nor reposing, Nature has clothed trees, bushes, and savannah in
an infinitely fresher and more vivid costume than that which the flames
destroyed. Owing to the inconceivable rapidity with which it strides
along, the column of fire only destroys the foliage, only the blades of
reed and grass, but not the tree, nor the grass-roots. Within
a few days the young green germinates, buds, and forces itself
out from under its gloomy covering almost as quickly as it was
destroyed, and soon blots out the last traces of the devouring element.

812. In the course of the forenoon a number of Macusis from the
environs had come to Haiowa, partly, it is true, out of curiosity, and partly
to offer us articles for exchange. We soon got on to the best terms with
them, although one must be careful to avoid direct contact, because each
one leaves his mark like the miller does with his working-day jacket,
except that here it is red, because this tribe loves the paint really to
excess. The men smear their short cropped hair full with it, in the same
way that the most sweet-scented dandy does his with pomade. On top
of the forehead there is generally a regular clump of it to which i*
attached the white down of the hokko-hen. The mother also regularly
rubs it into her little children's heads for these are assured just as much
against sickness as against the power of evil spirits, who dare not venture
near such a Bedhead, Just as the Negro, for another reason,, is recog-

WOMEN ABE NEVEK SEEN UNEMPLOYED. 287

nised at a distance of several paces by the olfactory nerves, so can the
Macusi be distinguished by the strong-smelling resins of Humirium
floribundum Mart., and Amyris ambrosiaca, .Willd. with which the red
paint is mixed. They also permit no hair to grow upon any other portion
of the body except the head, every other bit of sprouting "down" being
extracted with a couple of mussel shells. Only a few strong-minded
ones seem to have overcome their prejudice, for I at least saw an
individual here and there who had given his miserable growth of beard
a chance. In their own eyes it was an ornament upon which they prided
themselves not a little. On the spot whence the eyebrows have been
removed, they generally paint a red or black conspicuous line.

813. One will never see women unemployed ; their work in the field
completed they immediately take up the simple cotton spindle, and spin
the finest thread in which one might search in vain for a flaw, and
according to its requirements, two or more such threads
are rolled together. After the cotton is gathered and the picking
and cleaning completed, they always beat it before use for some time with
sticks, whereby it becomes looser and is less tightly held together.

814. To be sure, I have hurried somewhat ahead of the times in my
experiences, and therefore return to the run of the day that provided us,
in addition to a fruitless jaguar chase, with an uncommonly funny
intermezzo. The general hilarity that ruled the whole settlement was
.suddenly interrupted by a woman's cry for help, "Teikusi, Teikusi
( Jaguar, jaguar) !" that rang over to us from a house situate on the edge
of the forest a considerable distance away from the others. Everybody
got in u state of alarm ; the men seized their weapons and all of us
rushed to the house where the trembling woman informed us that just
as she was looking up from her work she had seen a big jaguar watching
her from the door, but which turned tail upon her shouting for assistance.
Everybody with a weapon now hurried along the track, distinctly
recognisable, without however anyone succeeding in finding the animal.
Naturally a number of cases in which the jaguar with uncommon bold>
ness had fetched out its favourite dainty, a dog, etc., from within an
occupied house, formed for a long while the topic of conversation which,
through the medium of Sororeng, was carried on between us and the
Indians. However keen the jaguar is in tracking dogs, it nevertheless
runs as soon as these take up the chase in company with men, and
generally escapes pursuit by climbing a tree. One of the hunters who
had followed the jaguar's tracks a bit farther than the others brought
me, as a spoil, a howler monkey which completely differed in colour from
all the others in that, instead of a brilliant yellow pelt, this was a dark
brown ; if it is not a new species, it is nevertheless a rather striking
variety.

815. While searching in one of his boxes for something, my brother
came across a six-chambered revolver that he had forgotten all* about,
although he had bought it in London with the intention of taking it into
the Interior. Without being noticed by anyone he quickly loaded it, and
got all the Indians sent for, as the white people wanted to have target
practice and they were to decide who was ttye l>est shot. As everyone

288 THE EVIL ONE'S WONDERFUL WEAPON.

generally respected my brother as the chief personage, he naturally had
to shoot first. The mere appearance of the little "Arakabusa" had
already raised the spectators to the tip-top of expectation, which
increased every instant more and more as they heard the first, second,
third, and fourth shots ring out and saw the balls strike the tree on each
occasion, without the weapon being reloaded — at the fifth shot, the
place was as if it had been swept clean, everybody having got up and
away, with the two chiefs in the lead. This was a case where only
wizardry or one of the evil spirits must have had a hand, because an
,arakabusa that in spite of not being reloaded, did not stop firing, but
could give a report and throw a ball, was up to now far beyond the
limits of their experience, and far above their conceptions of possibili-
ties. The wonderful weapon certainly remained for a long time the
object of their most earnest conversation. Similar astonishment was
also aroused when, on shooting our guns over the water they first noticed
the ball ricochetting from the surface at a distance of 000 yards.

816. Up to now, nothing had been heard or seen of the military
expedition, but as our patients were remarkably improved, and we were
abundantly provided with provisions, we said good-bye next morning to
dear Haiowa which, with its wonderful view over the broad savannah
and over the rapidly advancing column of fire, impressed itself all the
more deeply upon my memory when, on my return, I found only abandoned
houses. The chieftain and wife and his son died soon after our departure,
— the Evil Spirit to whom they must all submit had pitched his camp
among the harmless residents.

817. From Haiowa onwards, the Kupummi still always 200 yards
wide, keeps on winding towards the north-west. The burnt-off grass,
and bare branches of trees and bush on the northern bank showed that
the conflagration had also pursued its devastating course here. Having
already passed, before reaching Haiowa, the mouth of the Curassawaka
where my brother six years ago waited for the rainy season and which
flows into the Rupununi from the south, we nowr on the continuation of
our journey, during the course of the morning, struck the mouths of the
Watama and Annay Creeks. The latter comes down from the northern
hills and joins with the Rupununi immediately in the sharp bend which
it forms to the southward; the junction lies in 3° 54' 30" lat. N. and
59° 1' 29" long. W. Annay village lies at the source of the stream on
the eastern foot of the Annay Range. In the Macusi language Annay
means maize, which is found growing wild here. The settlement was
formerly occupied by Caribs with whom my brother spent six weeks
on his first journey with a view to re-establishing the undermined health
of his party. For me the village had a still further special interest in
that a strange report is connected with it, which we find related in the
diary of two Englishmen, Smith and Marine-Lieutenant Gulliver, at
present in my brother's possession. Both these gentlemen went up the
Waini in 1828. crossed the small tract of land between this and the
Ouyuni and following the latter down to its mouth in the Essequibo
then travelled up it to the Rupununi, from which latter they reached the
Pirara, Mahu, Takutu, Rio Branco and Rio Negro. On tjie J3arra 4o

HUMAN FLESH BOILED IN FISH-SAUCE. 289

Bio Negro Smith died of Dropsy. Lieutenant Gulliver continued his
journey on the Kip Negro, travelled down the Amazon and arrived at
Para whence he went to Trinidad. In the diary mentioned the travellers
note: "On the Rupununi we reached the Carib settlement Annay and
were cordially received by the chief who immediately had fish and
pepper pot set before us." After they had fairly satisfied their hunger
with the dish, another pepper-pot was set before them that contained
a large piece of meat and two human hands. At first the travellers
believed they were the hands of an ape as yet unknown to them and, as
their very resemblance made them shudder, refused it with the excuse
that when travelling it was forbidden them to eat the flesh of four-footed
animals. While the chief was now gnawing at a hand with evident grati-
fication he asked them what the fish and sauce had tasted like, and upon
being told that it was excellent, he assured them that human flesh was
certainly best suited for fish-sauce, for which reason he always had the
former boiled with it, as had been the case here, he having only recently
returned from a punitive expedition against the Macusis of whom he had
m£de several prisoners and was now killing one by one.

818. The horror and fright that overcame both travellers could not be
adequately enough described, and yet they had to suppress their feelings.
The hope that the chieftain's statements might prove false had neverthe-
less to be only too soon abandoned when they actually found in the
middle of the village a house that was closely surrounded with high
palisades in which they noticed several Macusis. Lieutenant Gulliver,
who felt sick, lay down in his hammock, but Smith remained awake all
night through the continual dread that their host might easily develop a
taste for the flesh of a white man. When about to bathe next morning
in a pond close by, the Indians tried every method to restrain them,
telling them in the meantime that everybody who bathed here would
die within a year. Both of them, however, insisted upon their bath and
as chance would have it neither survived the expiration of the twelve
month. Smith died on the Barra do Rio Negro and Gulliver fulfilled
the prophecy soon after his arrival in Trinidad, where he committed
suicide for some unknown reason by hanging himself. So much for the
diary which, otherwise posted up with a great amount of truth,
undoubtedly contains in this particular portion of it nothing else but one
of those many narratives of adventure to which one in Germany so
aptly applies the name of "fish-story." The Annay Indians well knew
plenty of things to tell my brother about these two white men, but
nothing concerning the enchanted pond which one sought in vain in the
neighbourhood.

819. Not far from the mouth of the Annay a Macusi had built his
lonely residence on top of the uncommonly high bank, to which a sort
of ladder led from the water edge. As one of our boats was still behind
we climbed up to the house, and found two of his wives, instead of the
owner, at home — the third had accompanied her husband. It was one of
the rare cases of polygamy among the Macusis which we personally
became acquainted with. Close to the house a tame young giant-crane
(Mycteria Americana Linn., the Tararamu of the Bfacusis) attracted mr

290 THE GIANT CBANE,

undivided attention. It was the first that I and several others of the
expedition had ever seen, and we were accordingly not a little astonished
when this huge bird came running up to us with a peculiar hissing and
piping note very much like that of our young storks. Its immense
beak, bent somewhat upwards, surprised us just as much as its naked
head and neck only sparsely covered with feather-down.

820. When the boat reached, we continued our journey alongside
the blackened bank now robbed of its botanical splendours. Only here
and there had the flame spared an isolated crippled Curatella Americana
Linn, or a Gomphia cardiosperma, De C. and (/. glaberrima Beauv. The
Indians use the rough hard leaves of the former as we employ shave-
grass or pumice-stone, for polishing their weapons, etc.

821. The south-easterly spur of the Pacaraima now ran fairly down
to the water-side along the foot of which the river meandered for a while.
The banks here consisted of a bright yellow clay, richly mixed with sand
and the savannah spread out immediately behind the riverside vegetation
which kept on varying repeatedly in width. If the sandbanks in
comparison with the Essequibo only appeared always at intervals now,
their number exceeded those of that river by far. Some giant cranes,
6ft. high, generally strutted up and down them with arrogant step.
This measured walk and erect carriage gave the bird indeed a worthy
and imposing appearance. Like our storks they have to take a thrice-
repeated run before they rise. Their visit to the sandbanks is partly
dependent upon the young turtles* which we now saw hurrying out of
the sand down to the water more plentifully than ever. The" instinct
according to which these reptiles never miss their way to it is truly
wonderful; we often carried these small delicate creatures far into the
bush, and then turned their heads inland, but in vain — hardly had we
withdrawn our hands than the little animal turned itself round and
without delay scampered off to the river.

822. The curiously-shaped cuirass-fish (Loricaria catapJiracta
Linn.) was also to be found on the sandbanks and, like the Callichthys
related to it, seems to leave the water and undertake small trips on
land. We often found it two or three feet away from the edge of the
water where it lay quiet on the damp sand and fell an easy prey.

823. I am still not yet finished with my account of the inhabitants
of, or at least the visitors to, the sandbanks : the biggest of the rodents,
the water-hog (Hydrochaerus Capybara), frequents them in very large
numbers. Although we had already found everywhere upon the
Essequibo sandbanks the most abundant traces of this ungainly and
elumsy animal, we had never succeeded in meeting with a specimen.
The coloured people call them water-haas, a name that probably arises
from the Dutch. Like otters, they are good swimmers and yet cleverer
divers, and only very seldom betake themselves inland far from the
waterside. A pretty little duck, Anas viduafa Linn., also showed up
here together with the A, moschata, : the former is likewise called Vissisi

4 - j_ T_ _ _ , i_._ j_ -i-m-r i ' '_ ' . _ j |_ r _ ~. - -T

* Macusis contradict this statement ; they maintain that the birds' diet, is strictly
limited to fish. (Ed.)

A MIXTURE OF WHITE AND &ED BLOSSOMS.

by the Indians because its cry is quite like that of thu A. autumnalis,
which however far excels it in brilliancy of plumage. One can easily
imagine how busily our guns were kept going at the frightened swarms
of the Vissisi as they continued to fly up and down stream and over
our heads : A. moschata seemed to be smarter, for if once scared they did
not return. We used our weapons upon them with most successful
results, often bringing down at one shot from 6 to 8 on the wing: their
flesh is undoubtedly one of the greatest delicacies.

824. The fartht r we went the more numerous were the sandbanks and
the drier the river until we finally had to punt the boats forward with
pcles. A number of black porous crags appeared on the river bank itself,
()T in beds on top of clay, while in those situations where the savannah
reached direct down to the water, the steep banks geneially consisted of
sandy concretions, to which the name Cascalho-Conglomerate* has
been applied.

825. Among the various new plants several species of the beautiful
Gustavia were especially conspicuous, particularly G. fastuosa, Willd.
and G. urceolata Poit. which with their large lovely white flowers shone
sweetly out of the dark green. Psidiutn aquaticum and aromaticuni as
well as the lowly trees of a Desmanthus commonly occupied the sand-
banks. A show was made on the branches of the latter by a beautiful
Loranthus with brilliant red blossoms over an inch long, in which Ij
recognised a new species that Dr. Klotzsch has called Loranthus
puiancnsis ; just as plentiful upon them was Loranthus Smithii Schoinb.
I have not found either of these species on any other tree. If the foster-
father blooms at the same time as the son, the sight has something
infinitely charming about it because then the white flowers of the
Desmanthus mix in the loveliest manner with the red ones of the
Loranthus.

826. The inlets or kirahaghs are to be found continually along the
banks : amongst them that of Assicure deserves mention on account of its
size. (These bays appear to be the resort of the Sudis gigas for we
everywhere recognised their reddish-brown and black tinged tail and
dorsal fins in between the malicious heads of the kaimans exposed on
the surface of the water. The Sawako-tunalli or Rain Mountain, with
which many a superstitious belief is connected, and along the base of
which we passed, is the highest summit of a mountain group that
forces the river to turn sharply to the south. The mountains were
almost generally bare, and only here and there were occupied by
isolated stretches of forest: on the other hand, some devilish Power
seemed to have regularly overstrewn them with huge granite boulders.

827. The whole horizon was again to-night reddened with the
glare of a burning savannah. In the course of the afternoon
wherever the savannah touched the waterside we had already seen
immense columns of smoke rolling along. During the night the stream

« • — • — • —

* Cascalho-conglomerate. This is probably the secondary conglomerate formed by the
re-cementiHg of the detrital products of the Kaieteurian conglomerate of which the
Pacaraima Mountains are formed. (E.E.W.)

292 WORSE OBSTACLES IHAN CATABACIS AND RAPIDS.

of fire had reached the bank, the noise of crackling grasses waking us
from our sleep. We gazed calmly from out of our hammocks at the
unloosened element — but then, there was an invincible enemy of the
flames, the river, between us.

828. The river maintained next day its winding course to the South-
ward. After getting into the Kupununi the rapids and cataracts had
indeed disappeared, but other difficulties opposed us in their stead.
The mighty giants of the forest, which the floods during the rainy
season had overturned and torn away with them in the upper reaches
of the river, had stuck fast in these bends and upon the sandbanks,
and in many places the uprooted trees were stacked one on top of the
other so thickly that it seemed as if one of those tropical tornadoes
had raged along the banks and thrown down everything in front of it.
The stout branches, bereft of leaves, rose everywhere out of the water
like mighty warnings of danger and formed at other points again
regular abatis through the narrow openings of which the otherwise
quiet ripples rolling towards them foamed like angered torrents.
Though in such spots one has to fight one's way forwards, axe in hand,
With every stroke of the paddles, the visible obstacles are nevertheless
far from being so dangerous as those hidden and more isolated branches
under water, because every careless bang against one of the latter,
particularly when travelling down-stream, inevitably entails a leak,
but often also the upset of the corial. To the tiresomeness of the
present voyage was now added the doubly increased plague of sandflies
which swarmed to a really awful degree. At sundown the tormentor.*
disappeared as if by magic but at earliest sunrise they returned wit1!
never-satisfied greed for blood.

829. In the course of the day we met a large corial with Macusis
who wanted to take a trip dawn the river. We also heard from them
that the Brazilians still retained possession of Pirara and that the
whole of the Indians had left the village for which reason the Brazilian
Domini, as almost all the tribes call a missionary, had withdrawn
to his previous station, Fort Sao Joa'quim on the Kio Branco, where
the commandant of Pirara, Captain Leal, was also at present stopping.

830. Mount Apayabo-Optayo (Unnatural mother), the base of
which was watered by the stream, might be about 1,500 feet above river
level. The Macusis accompanying us from Haiowa told us many a
remarkable thing about the two great cavities that are to be found on its
Northern slope. For some time past the Rupununi had considerably
narrowed its bed ; here it had barely a breadth of 40 yards, and on the
farther side of the streams Massuro and Bononi one of but 13 yards,
whereupon it soon after resumed its previous width.

831. The vegetation along the banks now became more luxuriant, the
majestic Mora was not even wanting among the foliage trees, and the
large beautiful violet flowers of the Cattleya, superba Schomb. upon its
branches, like the white and yellow blossoms of the Inga and Cassia
bushes on the banks, the sweet-scented flowers of the Machaerium
Schomburykii Benth., and the Griistavia, pterocarpa Poit, overtopped by

A RIYER MONSTER HOOKS OUR BOATHAND. 293

the glorio.us Pctrca macrostachya Benth,, lent them a peculiar and lovely
charm.

832. Among our coloured boathands from the Essequibo was a mute
— a passionate fisherman. No sooner had we pitched camp to-day upon
a large sandbank than, as was his daily custom, he took up his line and
made his way in one of the boats to a small sandbank lying off the
opposite shore. Everybody was already soundly asleep when they were
suddenly awakened by a really extraordinary but at the same time
terribly startling sound, which at first no one really knew what to make
head or tail of, until one of the people shouted, "It must be the dumb
man!" Armed with cutlasses and guns we immediately jumped into the
boat to render him assistance, for the trembling tones only too distinctly
betrayed that it was required. On landing where he was, we noticed, so
far as the darkness in the distance allowed, that the poor angler was
being dragged here and there, though always in the direction of the
water, by some invisible power, which he was striving to resist with all
his might, and uttering those horrible inarticulate sounds all the while.
We soon stood beside him but could not see what it was that jerked and
pulled him to and fro till we at last noticed that he had wound his
fishing-line five or six times round his wrist and that some huge creature
must be dragging on the hook. This turned out to be an immense Sudii
ffigas which, after yielding to temptation and swallowing the bait, had
pulled upon the line so forcibly that the poor fellow's strength had been
too weak to unwind the line or to haul in the brute. A few minutes later
and the exhausted fisher would have been unable to resist the creature's
strength any longer. Amidst lots of laughter everybody now grabbed at
the line and the monster soon lay on the sandbank : it weighed over 200
pounds. Our mute, into whose wrist the line had cut, now endeavoured
by means of the most ridiculous gesticulations to explain how the thing
happened as well as his deep anxiety and distress. Prior to the unfor-
tunate accident he had already caught a number of Phractoccphalits
bicolor from three to four feet long and from 30 to 40 pounds in weight
— the largest that I had hitherto seen. Although it was late in the night
the catch was nevertheless cut up after our return to camp where many
a still smouldering fire burst afresh into flame, and many a pot was
filled and its contents devoured. I prepared the monster's head for the
Anatomical Museum. During the course of this late supper Sororeng
told us of a similar adventure that had happened to him on my brother'*
previous journey above one of the falls of the Barima. It chanced that
he also was fishing there late one evening in a small corial and had
hardly thrown out the hook than it was seized by a powerful Lau-lau
which, as I have already remarked, reach a length of from ten to twelve
feet and a weight of 200 pounds. Sororeng had tied the line on to the
craft, but it got entangled through the fish moving about in all direc-
tions, and having nothing with which to cut it away qitickly, he at last
had to exert every effort to control his boat. The strength of the fish,
together with the current, were far too much for him : the corial was
getting closer and closer to the top of the fall, when his loud cries for
nssistance likewise awakened the sleeping rescuers who also reached him

294* CARIES BECOME CHANGED INTO STONES.

before a fatality occurred, although he implored them, in spite of the
danger, not to cut the line, but to help him in some other way. Cooking
was continued the whole night through, for the knowledge of having fish
in camp that would certainly be spoilt by the morning did not allow any
of the Indians or negroes to think about sleep.

833. On the right bank next morning we reached the
narrow mouth of the Simoni, the bed of which imme-
diately behind its entrance into the Kupununi spreads
out like a pond. The sides are low and apparently more fertile
than those of its main stream. On the farther side of the mouth a whole
series of from 12 to 15 foot high isolated porous blocks of rock which
the Indians called Kirinambo attracted my attention. They stretch from
the bank- towards North East North and in their outward appearance
they look uncommonly like a row of people. "A long long while ago/'
the Macusis told us "the Caribs came as far as here with hostile intent to
surprise the Macusis and exterminate them from off the face of the earth.
At that time the Good Spirit still lived among our forefathers; he
felt sorry for his wards and turned the Caribs into these stones."

834. We now got close to Wai-ipukari Inlet, the landing place for
Pirara, although the village itself was situate another 11 miles inland.
As we could not attach implicit belief to the statements of the Indians
that some Brazilians were still there, all precautionary measures were
taken to guard against a surprise as well as to avoid anything that could
make the military stationed there cognisant of our proximity. Each of
the boatmen received a certain number of ball-cartridges ; similar loading
was prepared for the small mortars, and no one from now on was to
dare fire a weapon. But with these warlike preparations the jaws of our
escort dropped: their hearts were in their mouths. While the Indians,
particularly the Macusis, who for the greatest part had already been so
often witness of the ghastly scenes practised during the slave-raids
carried on by the Brazilians, received the weapons out of the supply of
"trade"with flashing eyes and the distinctly expressed wish — "if I could
only satisfy through your means my revenge for all the burnt-down
settlements, all my murdered relatives and tribesmen" — these precau-
tionary measures brought into existence exactly the opposite sentiments
in the Negroes, coloured people, and unfortunately also in our four
South-Germans who had no inkling that on this expedition such perilous
incidents could possibly take place. Hamlet and Stockle again sur-
passed everybody else. We strove in vain to force a weapon on the
rormer ; he swore black and blue that he now and never would use it, fo/'
by doing so he would only make his unhappy lot worse. Although the
three remaining Germans possessed at least sufficient sense of honour a*
not to give expression to their anxiety in such a cowardly whimper,
their long faces and trembling hands nevertheless betrayed it quite
enough — signs that the Indians noticed with contemptuous looks. I
must admit that I was ashamed of my landsmen. Man's mind is indeed
a mystery; the very same people who had been hourly exposed to the
greatest peril and who had trusted themselves to the broad expanse of
uncertain Ocean, people whose lives had so often hung on the slightest

THE INDIANS FOOL OUR HEROES. 295

thread, and who had persisted in accompanying us on our journey to the
interior, — these very individuals now trembled and quaked like childrea
at a danger which in comparison with man's courage ceased to be such,
and made themselves the laughing-stock and gibe of others to whom they
believed themselves infinitely superior. We hardly could have pulled a
few hundred strokes in the deep silence when the Indians commenced
chaffing: all of a sudden the short and half suppressed shout "Matti,
Caraiba!" (almost all the tribes of the interior call the Brazilians
Caraiba) was heard, and the whole of the black, white, and brownish
crew crumpled with fright like aspen leaves, and strained their eyes in
the waterside bush, until the suppressed laughter of the Indians let
them see that their anxiety and misery were only being made sport of.

835. It was quite easy to foretell what would happen if a surprise-
attack were really to take place. Under such circumstances what
wrould have been the use of the large number of poltroons who already
winced at every sound of a frightened mammal or rising bird on the
densely foliaged bank and took it for a Brazilian in the act of training
his gun on them? The numerous clouds of smoke rising ahead and at
our side in the distant savannah, and my brother's carelessly uttered
remark that the Brazilians had probably set it ablaze added fuel to the*
fright of our faint-hearted heroes.

836. That ominous spot Wai-ipukari Inlet upon which, according to
the imagination of the valiant crew, life and liberty depended, showed
up at last. Every tree, every bush was examined and scanned in mortal
terror, lest perhaps the dreaded enemy was under cover : he was nowhere
to be seen or heard. We landed on the right bank where we pitched
our temporary camp as we wanted to remain a few days and at the sama
time forward the Governor's despatches to the commandant of Pirara.

837. Wai-ipukari Inlet, in 3° 38' lat. N., and 59° 11' long. W. is the
"Port of the imperial and golden city of Manoa" : a path leads from there
to the Macusi village of Pirara on the bank of the Amucu, the "large lake
with golden edges,'' the terminus of our present river-trip. With our big
heavily-freighted boats we had now successfully completed a dangerous
passage of more than 300 miles against stream over a number of raging
rapids and other obstacles : we had spent more than six weeks squeezed
up in the narrow confines of the corials and, in addition to the continuous
exertion, we had had to bear the rack and torture of the sandflies ever
since we reached the mouth of the Rupununi. The inlet was accordingly
hailed by us with delight, but less so by the crowd of heroes who were
still ever fearful of their life and lil>erty.

838. Pirara was yet 11 miles inland find Mr. Fryer, who very
readily undertook the order, was commissioned to deliver the despatches :
the more the two Germans and coloured people who were to accompany
him kicked against the pricks, the less it helped them. He left cairn,
next morning with his heroes who took farewell of their friends in a last
good-bye; their return could not be expected under two days. After
this party had got out of sight, another was sent off to the Awaricuru
River to clean it of its overhanging branches and trees : it opens into the
Rupununi upon the left bank a few miles above Wai-ipukari Inlet an<}

296 THE SAVANNAH VEGETATION.

during the rainy season forms, in conjunction with the Quatata, a fine
water-way pretty well as far as Pirara : the streams are divided from one
another only by a small stretch of land. With the exception of this incon-
siderable portage continuous communication by water is offered from
Demerara to Para, on the Amazons, through the agency of the Pirara,
Mahu, Takutu, Rio Branco and Rio Negro. As the rainy season was
now in front of us we could at least get within a few miles of Pirara on
the Awaricuru, which was of importance to us in connection with the
heavy land-transport.

839. A short trip in the neighbourhood of the Rupununi banks
afforded me the opportunity for making, at almost every step, some new
discovery in the field of botany. On getting thiough the forest-border
of the Northern waterside I stepped upon the open undulating savannah.
Though its vegetation, compared with that of the river banks, is called
stunted, it nevertheless contains a number of treasures that the latter
wanted. At the very first move I made, a peculiar plant of the family
Eriocauloneae which, as I subsequently noticed, spread itself over the
whole of the hilly savannah, particularly over the tops of these wavy
rises, struck me as being a Paepalanthiis : on closer investigation it
turned out to be a new species which Dr. Klotzsch called Pacpalantlins
capillaccus* The, hills were strewn throughout with glossy ochre-
coloured pebbles and other stone which had probably derived their colour
from the reddish and ferruginous solid clay of which the soil consisted
The lovely flowers of Machaerinm Schomburglcii Benth., resembling the
violet in scent, perfumed the whole atmosphere in the neighbourhood of
the bight, around which the dainty tree is so plentifully found : its hard
timber is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful of ornamental woods,
its many brown spots giving it quite the appearance of a jaguar skin.
The Indians call it Itikiri buriballi and frequently bring it to George-
town for barter.

840. A hunting expedition was arranged for the following morning.
Supplied with something to eat I went off into the forest limiting the
Southern bank in company with two of our Waikas and Warraus, to
whom the lay of the land was certainly just as little known as to myself.

841. My companions sneaked so lightly and nimbly through the
thick bush that I had all I could do to follow them. They distinctly
heard every sound of an animal that was inaudible to me, they swept
their eyes in all directions and up the summits of the tallest trees until
they assured themselves of their quarry and then imitated its call now at
first lightly and then continually louder and louder: not a single thin"1
from the smallest to the biggest escaped their eyes, ever alert ears, or

* —Besides the stunted and isolated Curatella american « Linn, trees, the following? plants
predominated : ITirleJJa rubra Benth., TiboucJiina aspera Aub., Bauhinia maorostachya Benth. ,
Plumieria moJIi* Humb. Bonp., P. bicolor Ruiz, et Pav., JTelicteres aUhaeifolia Lam., Syrxonima
craxsifolia Humb. Bonp., B. Movreila Loud., S. verlascifolia DeC., Amasonia erecta Linn, with their
glorious bracts, Phaseolns tineari* Humb. Bonp., Crolalaria stipularia Desv., Comtnianfhux Srhnm
knrglcii Benth., Lippia microphylJa Chmss., Camara tilisefoUa Benth,, and Aeschynomene mncronulata
Benth. The real grass-covering consisted for the most part of Cyperaeeae ; in fact, the genera
Isolepsis. Carex, Hemicarpha, Dichromena, and several species of Cy eru.i had their home on
th« dry higher-lying savannahs, while Mariscu*, Kyllingia, and Scleria occupied the damp
and marshy spots. Hypolytrum was also represented

I SEE A TAPIR FOB THE FlEST TlME, 297

quick hands, while at the same time they now and again kept turning
down a twig, signs to help find their way back out of the labyrinth.
If the animal answers the call but once, it is the sure prey of the hunter
who, like a snake in the grass, creeps closer and closer without hardly
shifting the leaf lying on the ground until the bird or quadruped is
within reach of his weapon, A curious thing about Indians who own a
gun is the firmly-rooted and obstinate opinion that the more the powder
the more true the aim. In spite of all our demonstrations against the
fallacy we never convinced them to the contrary. The report is
naturally more noisy and later on I would have betted anything that
out of a hundred shots I could tell exactly how many were loaded by
Indians. It is unnecessary to mention that what with the bad weapons
they generally possess a number of accidents result from this sense-
less idea, and that were they not to sneak so closely on to their game,
or to decoy it into their immediate vicinity, the Indians would soon
enough discard these fire-arms and resume their bows and arrows.

842. We niight have been working our way for about half an hour
through the forest when suddenly my immediate companion stood stock
still, pointed to the ground, and uttered the word "Maipuri!" (Tapir
Amcricamis). A given signal put the three others, who were somewhat
distant, in touch with the information, and they also cheerily called
"Maipuri !" Quietly and without a sound we proceeded through swamp
and bush and thick overhanging cutting-grass. The naked Indians
slipped through this knife-edged grass (Scleria flagellum Sw.) with such
nimbleness and dexterity that their bodies did not show the slightest
trace of damage, while as for me, who had only followed the path
already broken, the blood was pouring down my face and hands. They
never lost sight of the tracks whether these wore left clearly impressed
on the swampy soil, or led over wide stretches covered with dead leaves :
silent and sure we pushed ahead. We might have been running them for
a little longer than an hour when they again led into a swamp. The
Indians in advance signalled that the animal was quite close. Although
I myself now sneaked forward as warily as I possibly could, I neverthe-
less made just as much noise with one of my feet as the Indians with all
their eight, which made them turn round upon me every instant with
angered countenances. The first Indian now crouched low, with the
animal in the Swamp ahead; we soon caught up to him, did the same
thing, and I saw a tapir for the first time. After the manner of our pigs it
had thrown itself lengthways in the wet spongy soil where it seemed to
be fooling quite comfortable until, at the end of a few minutes, it must
have noted our presence, when, sticking its head up and sniffing the air
with its short snout, it got on its legs — the moment when all five of us
fired as if by word of command. Wounded, but not mortally, it made an
awful spring, circled round a few times and before we could reload,
rushed into the thick bush, with us behind it, until we suddenly heard a
dull splash in a piece of wafrr ahead of us, and to our disgust found
ourselves on the high steep bank of the Rupununi up the opposite shore
of which the tapir was just then clambering to make its way into the
brushwood. An instant later, I stood all alone on the edge and saw the

298 AND AM BLAMED FOR ITS ESCAPE.

four Indians swimming the river below me, holding up their weapons
and small hunting pouches containing powder and lead, out of the water,
and disappearing in the bush on the farther side. In consequence of
the high jump into the stream not only their weapons but also the
ammunition of course must have got wet, on which account I did not
expect any results from their pursuit. And there was I standing all
alone by myself upon the high bank in ignorance of my position, whether
above or below our camp. I waited in vain hour after hour for the
return of my companions, called, shouted, and whistled again, but
nothing else was to be heard beyond perhaps the note of some frightened
bird or animal making its escape. What happened to me on the first
occasion of my being lost was now vividly called to mind. I also cursed
myself for neglecting to bring a compass. I also cursed my
crass stupidity — it was no good, it did not advise me which direction
to take. I had thus been sitting several hours already and had long
given up hope that the Indians would make their way back, when I saw
the bush opening on the farther shore and one Indian after another
coming into view, throwing himself into the river and swimming over to
me. Their efforts had been fruitless and although they had found the
animal again and had got within shot, the guns, as I had foreseen, had
all missed fire. All of us had loaded with coarse shot, and so none of
the hits were mortal. The tapir made its escape. My companions
returned vexed and depressed and although, in their opinion, I was the
main cause of their failure, I nevertheless had often to laugh heartily
enough when, on the way back, they mimicked the actions of the shot
animal in pantomime. We reached the camp by sundown where the
whole conversation, that lasted far into the night, now turned upon the
tapir. They related the story of their bad luck to almost everybody and
in the course of their narrative did not omit to mention even the most
trivial circumstances. They told how they had found and followed the
tracks, how the animal had been wounded, and had jumped into the
river, and how they had pursued it but had come back empty-handed. I
understood everything, accompanied as it was by the most vivid
pantomime, as the others listened and now and again interrupted the
flow of speech with their "Wa" and "Na." The oft-repeated word
"Paranaghieri" beti ayed distinctly enough that I was also referred to
here as the main cause for their bad luck.

843. The great question of the morrow was, as only to be expected,
the return of Mr. Fryer. Everyone was awaiting the valiant band of
warriors with the greatest tension and the liveliest curiosity, but never-
theless with the conviction that it would never more be seen, because they
imagined the poor fellows were already bound in chains on their way to
Fort Sao Joa'quim. They were accordingly not a little surprised at the
party's return in the course of the afternoon safe and sound, and its
absolute confirmation of what the Indians had stated. With the
exception of four families Pirara had l>een abandoned by all its Indian
residents ; the Brazilian military garrison had also withdrawn leaving
but three men behind. These three, however, were not to be found in
the village, having strolled off to a neighbouring drinking-party. The

A FAIRY GARDEN GUARDED BY OGRES. 299

first thing Mr. Fryer had to do was to bring them back, and then straight-
way start one of them off on horseback to Fort Sao Joaquim on the Rio
Branco with the despatches for the Commandant.

844. All preparations were now made so as to leave for Pirara next
morning, the people who had been sent to the Awarkuru also having
returned already with the news that they had cleared the river as much
as they possibly could. Together with this information they had
brought in a ttudis gigus, the largest that I had hitherto seen. I was
kept busy all night preparing it for the Museum and got it finished by
the time we left.

845. From hearing the sound of plenty of gun-fire that was borne
over to us by the strong easterly breeze as we were taking our departure,
we knew that the military expedition was at hand, a fact that put fresh
courage into those who were despondent. Hamlet and Stockle again
breathed freely; the former behaved like a child and the latter found his
peculiar unaffected simplicity which for the past three days had been
entirely lacking. We left Sororeng to show the new-comers the way via the
Awaricuru, and hurried ahead of those marching behind.

846. The banks of the river, which the maps wrongly specify as

Tawarikua, were bordered mainly with Heliconiae, Bromeliae,, Rapateae,

and now and again sharp-leaved arboreal grasses behind which rose trees

to a height of 160 feet foimiug with their leaves majestically arched

roofs. ;The dainty Ibis midifrons Spix., continually flying ahead of us

kept our company at short intervals and a huge coiledj-up 12-ft. long

snake (Boa murina) fell a target to our guns. The land ever continued

to get more swampy and the river soon widened out into a lake-like

enlargement at least two miles wide. Wherever the eye turned, whether

on the banks or on the water, it struck upon the horrible heads and

repulsive figures of kaimans, amongst which we noticed many that

measured quite 18 to 20 feet. A number of Plotm, Carbo, Anas, Ardea,

and other water-birds circled about its tranquil surface, strutted up and

down along its edges or else with retracted neck perched indolently

upon its trees. Still more numerous, however, must be its scaly

denizens. /The trunks and branches of the dark riverside vegetation

were embellished with inconceivably numerous blossoms of the Cattle j/a

superba Schomb. with which, here and there, the 8chomlmrr/kia c-ri*pa.

and a quantity of Epidendrum, Aspasia, Bifrenaria, and Catasetum were

intimately associated. The leafless trees killed by the wet, for instance,

were regularly overgrown with this most beautiful of all the orchids, and

covered with hundreds of its large flowers. I have never again fonni

the Cattlcya in so great a 'quantity on so small an area as this which they

had transformed into a fairy garden guarded by the most repulsive ogres.

CHAPTER VIII.

Arrival of the Military Expedition — Our departure for Pirara — Savan-
nah flora — Ant-hills — Canuku Range — Pacaraima Range — Pirara--
Source of the river Pirara — Abcristo, the Brazilian — Mar de aguas
blancas — Lake Amucu — Islas Ipomuccna — Watershed of the
Rupnmmi and Rio Branco — Flora and fauna of the neighbourhood
of Pirara — Herds of wild cattle — Arrival of Friar Jose dos Santos
Innocentes and of Captain Leal — Senora Liberadina — Baducca —
Catching and killing wild cattle — Brazilian vaqueiros — Arrival of
a parti/ of Maiongkong Indians from the Orinoco — Referee tion of
dilapidated houses at Pirara — Construction of Fort New Guinea.

847. After we liad crossed the lake-like enlargement of the River
Awaricuru and the stream had resumed its previous width, the low
state of the water forced us to find a place where we could land our
belongings. .We had got four miles nearer Pirara. A suitable spot was
quickly cleared so as to make room for the large amount of luggage,
which we could hardly have conveyed to Pirara under eight days had we
not had so much assistance. All of a sudden as if by magic every busy
hand stopped still; we heard in the dim distance bugles striking up the
beautiful melody of "Rule Britannia" which was carried from tree to tree
through the virgin forest and notified the approach of the military
detachment. It was a strange and affecting moment for me when the
absolutely harmonious sounds of the glorious tune swelled ever more
strongly and then died far ahead of us in an expiring echo. In the
course of an hour the big boat came into view round a bend of the river :
it was chock full of a motley-dressed crowd of black figures whose full-
voiced throats broke out into a thundering hurrah. Soon after, a
landing was made by the officers with Lieutenants Bingham and Bush
in the lead, all cursing and swearing at the uncustomary exertion : they
greeted us with a hearty handshake. What must the rapids have been
to upset their military bearing, what must the undergrowth of "pimplers"
have been like to tear in tatters the tunics adapted for parade ! A dirty
coloured shirt, ten times dirtier linen, half-torn trousers which l)ad long
forgotten their original colour, and a broad straw hat constituted the
uniform of the commandant, as well as that of the rank and file. When
the officers, who were only distinguished from the latter by their white
faces, learnt of the peaceful state of affairs, they seemed to be anything
but displeased, while the full-toned "God save tLc Queen" on the bugles
rang triumphantly in thousands of echoes through the forest which
otherwise was so noiseless. The detachment had left Georgetown onlv

o j

on the llth January.

848. The remaining eight boats with provisions had been held back
at Haiowa owing to the disquieting news that had been received there,
as well as to the serious differences that had arisen with Police-Inspector
Crichton and the Post-Holder, McClintock. The former, who had
traversed the route twice already, had been sent by the Governor with

THE BLACK ARMY is HARANGUED. 301

the expedition to show them the way : the latter had supervision over the
Indians who had been hired as boathaiids. Mr. Youd, as well as our
corial that had been despatched from Waraputa to Ainpa to fetch the
things left behind, was in the rear-guard. While the black crew were
discharging their military stores, tents, etc., we and the officers compared
notes concerning our respective adventures over a bottle of wine. They
had also crossed the falls without mishap, had found our greetings in the
empty champagne bottle and followed our example; they unfortunately
lost twro Arawaks from dysentery.

849. Hamlet was beside himself, for feeling now quite safe he
danced and sang around the big fires which he had got lighted in view
of preparing the feast for to-day's welcome, and searched the cases for all
the dainties that up to now had been put aside.

850. Shortly before supper Lieut. Bingham had his black army
drawn up and gave them an inspiriting harangue. He made known to
them the condition of affairs but at the same time also warned them not
to imagine perhaps that all danger was past, because it was easily
possible for the Brazilians to come back now in doubly increased
numbers, to try and drive them out of Pirara or lead them into captivity.
He did not want to describe in detail the fate that awaited them were
they not to justify the trust that England had reposed in their courage
and their valour, but would only remind them of the mines in the
province of Minas where the prisoners never lived to enjoy the bright
Hue sky or breathe the fresh air of heaven again. To put it briefly, he
represented the lot to be expected as something so horrible that his
black audience, who had hardly got enough travelling kit left to cover
their nakedness, became possessed of the real Berserker spirit, and
swore hard and fast that they would rather hack themselves to piecesr
than submit to such slavery : judging from my subsequent experience of
the Brazilian militia, such a really furious Negro would easily have got
the better of any of her soldiers. Exultant and inspired with the glory
of battle the multitude was dispersed. That beautiful Hamlet of ours
and that cowardly Stockle now played the part of Falstaff to real
perfection for, mixing up with the black troops, these true swaggerers
tried to inflame them still more against the Brazilians behind their
backs : this was quite unnecessary with the really doughty soldiers.

851. At supper also, many a sarcastic remark to be sure was let
fall and many a satirical toast proposed: for without being a military
genius, the impracticability of this monstrously costly and, if matters
really came to a crisis, unsuccessful expedition was patent to everybody.
Had the Brazilians wanted to remain owners of Pirara they could have
easily crushed the small force to death before relief could have been even
thought of. The presence at the mouth of the Amazon of a single
frigate, of which many were lying idle in Barbados, would Lave produced
the same effect at barely a sixth of the cost.

852. Next morning my brother went over to Pirara to get the neigh-
bouring Indians by whom he was generally as well known as respected,
to come and help with the transport of the baggage which had to be
carried pick-a-back a distance of seven miles; the soldiers were not going

302 PYRAMIDS AMONG THE BUSHES*

to do this, they being only bound to carry their weapons and knapsacks.
Mr. Fryer was ordered to stay here until the last bit of our luggage was
fetched away: Goodall and I on the other hand willingly re-
mained behind to join in some hunting-parties with the officers
who had to await the rearguard before they could leave for Pirara.
Unfortunately we got back from all these excursions cut and tattooed
with the sharp cutting-grass, and no other bag than a number of birds :
the whole area consisted of an almost continuous swamp which, though
indeed fairly dry at this present time of the year, carried no mammals.
Owing to its slender halms this generally 10 to 16 ft. high Selena,
flagellum cannot hold itself upright, and so conies to establish itself on
bush and trunk with which it forms impenetrable thickets. Wounds
caused by this blady grass sting uncommonly badly, for which reason
our ardour for the chase soon experienced a distinct cooling, when we
limited our trips to the open damp savannah. f

853. Upon returning from one of these excursions we found that
some of the boats bringing the remaining military stores with Lieutenant
Weiburg, the mortally sick army-surgeon, together with Quarter-master
Low and Mr. Youd had just arrived: our corial from Ampa came with
them. Unfortunately my hermetically closed glass boxes had been left
behind in Ampa owing to want of space: I bitterly regretted this,
because the best means of transporting the living orchids was now losfc
to me.

854. During the morning the greater portion of the military left
for Pirara, Lieutenant Weiburg staying behind with a detachment in
charge of the baggage, an arrangement that suited Mr. Fryer down to
the ground. Mr. Goodall, Missionary Youd and I left the camp before
the soldiers so that I could count all the easier upon getting something.
At first the path lay over undulating ground that was sparsely covered
with bushes of Caseari-a car pini folia Benth., G. brevipes Benth., Melas-
toma, Hirtella, Byrsonimv, Mimosa and Cassia, scattered trees of
Curatella Americana, as well as with a short grass that the sun had long
since coloured yellow. In between the bushes there rose everywhere
8 to 12 ft. high whitish pyramid-like heaps that lent the whole a peculiar
character. These were the dwellings of termites which, like pigmy
villages, appeared upon all the rises above the general level : they were
usually built out of the ochreous savannah clay in a sugar-loaf shape
impervious to the rain and sufficiently strong to withstand even a
tropical hurricane. Hero and there perching upon their tcps could be
seen one of the pretty little falcons (Falco sparverius Linn.) that would
shoot down like lightning after an insect or lizard and return with it
just as rapidly to its Belle Vue. The female differs essentially from the
male in the colour of the plumage. The large Caracara eagle (Polyborus
caracara Spix.) had also picked these ant-hills for a look-out whence

f Besides the orchids and the Lorantkus guianensisKl., already cited, I found particularly in
the swampy savannah the Buttneria scabra Linn., B. ramosistima Pohl., Polygala longicaulis Humb.
Bonp., P. variabilis Humb, Bonp., P. appressa Benth., Corchortis argutus Humb. Bonp., Coutou-
oea reftexa, Benth., Buchnera pa1tt.itrix Spreng., Schultesia sienophylla Mart.. S. bractyptera Chmss.,
and Bacopa aquatica, Aubl.

THE CANTJKU AND PACABAIMA RANGES. 303

he would pounce down and waylay the animals, fearing nothing evil,
as they were passing by. Not only the ant-hills but the rising ground
of the rest of the savannah was everywhere strewn with pieces of quartz,
clay, and brown iron-stone gravel : the quartz was coloured reddish-brown
with iron oxide, while the clay appeared both in the form of isolated
hardened fragments as well as in complete similarly hardened boulders.
Near by the ant-hills and larger boulders occupied by those thieves,
numbers of ugly blackish lizards (Ec phi/ motes torquatus Duin.) were
sunning themselves, but in spite of every effort I never succeeded in
catching any of the volatile creatures, because they always disappeared
in the grass as quick as lightning as soon as I got within six to eight
paces. A small prettily coloured lizard of the genus Cent ropy x or
Cn&midophorus was also slipping around in and amongst the grass.

855. The otherwise ordinary savannah was soon to be more enlivened
as a whole, because we saw several parties of persons ahead moving
towards us in true Indian file, i.e., one behind the other in uninterrupted
sinuous lines between tae ant-hills. As the first party drew near and
the leader recognised Mr. Youd, an expression of real delight was
depicted on the faithful good-natured faces : everybody pressed round to
shake hands and scrutinise him more carefully to make sure that it was
indeed their old friend. Youd introduced us to an old one-eyed man,
the chieftain Basico,f whose joy expressed itself in every limb;
he shook my hands with honest cordiality and inward joy and the
expression "Matti!" Naturally they had plenty to tell Youd about what
the Caraiba had done, and what tliey had suffered at their hands. After
the first lot had finally taken leave and continued on their way to the
Awaricuru to fetch our baggage, the same friendly scene was repeated
with each succeeding group, so that from now on we could only make
slow progress to Pirara : our pace was also retarded by several swampy
spots occupied by large numbers of the Mauritia flexuosa which, with
fLeir smooth grey trunks and numerously leaved crowns, often strove
a hundred feet and more to reach the skies. In the course of our journey
we got on the top of a not inconsiderable rise where one of the most
beautiful panoramas unexpectedly opened out Before us: a landscape
over which the eye rambled with delight. Southwards, on our left, the
thickly forested Conokon or Canuku Kange stretched some 30 miles
away from North East to West in fanciful wavy lines out of which
various huge bleak masses of mountain rose above the dark patches of
foliage as they soared away in picturesque rocky ridges towards the
heavens: northwards, the cheerless Pacaraima Range also limited the
horizon from East to West and in certain spots attained a height of
quite 2,000 feet. Canuku means "overgrown with forest" and Pacaraima
receives its name from the peculiar shapes of certain rocky heights of
the Range that have much resemblance to the Indian baskets which are
called Pacara. The Pacaraima Range extends in the said direction from

Pirara, between the Pacaraima and Canuku Mountains. (&a.)

304 REV. YOUD RETURNS to PIRARA.

the banks of the Rupununi to the Orinoko, and defines to the westward
the separation of the basins of the three largest streams of the northern
portion of South America — that of the giant Amazon, the mighty
Orinoco, and the cataract-broken Essequibo .

856. The glorious view smiled at us bewitchiugly as it lay spread
out before us like an immense coverlet over the shallow undulating
valley dotted with moist green forest-oases and palm-groups in
between the two ranges of mountain, until it finally became merged in
the dim distance with the western horizon, when the oppressively hot
sunshine on the unprotected savannah combined with a burning thirst
forced us to push ahead so as to obtain relief from both at the earliest
opportunity. A fresh party of Indians having been asked by Mr. Youd
to bring us some water willingly did so and returned soon after with our
bottles filled : the liquid to be sure was not only warm but very evil
smelling — and yet it invigorated and refreshed us. On following the
small winding Indian path and reaching the highest point of ground we
recognised in our rear the advancing "thin red line" of Britons, for the
soldiers had donned their uniforms to-day, and on our front, though still
in the far distance, the village of Pirara with its numerous buildings.
Mr. Youd was deeply affected when he now once more saw rising before
him his earlier sphere of activity to which he clung with all his bounteous
love. The closer we got the more was the brave missionary greeted by
well-known objects both in the outskirts as well as even outside the
village. But the building that he looked most anxiously for, the little
church that he had erected, was not to be found — the Brazilians had
razed it to the ground because it had been built by a heretic. On its
former site stood ft huge structure that overtopped the others like a
Colossus, in front of which moreover an immense cross that was already
visible in the far distance had been erected. A second equally larffe
building, also unknown to Mr. Youd, rose at a little distance from the
first : in fact, he only recognised but one of the larger houses again and
that was his former residence which, as we learnt on our arrival, had
been occupied by Friar Jose dos Santos Innocentes.

857. The small narrow valley of the Pirara was all that separated
us now from the height beyond, upon which the Macusi settlement was
situate. About a mile to the eastward or where we were standing my
eyes chanced to hit the marshy source of the Pirara, enclosed as it was
by a thick mass of gigantic rushes and crowded groups of all sizes of
Mauritia flexuosa. A strong fence stretched away below us on our
right: within it the numerous cattle were grazing here and there in
the savannah. We crossed the Pirara, climbed the gentle slope overgrown
with bush, and entered the village. When once inside Mr. Youd indeed
hardly recognised the flourishing little settlement of 1838. Of the 40
natty houses that were then ranged alongside one another now only
half remained and even of these many were fast going to ruin: tho
population at that time numbering 600 had now dwindled down to
four families, all the remainder having withdrawn to the Canuku
Ranges and other settlements as a result of their rough handling by the

Hi .

' V,

S
•<

•<

— <

AND VISITS His WIFE'S GRAVE. 305

Brazilians. Since the departure of Friar Jose" dos Santos Innocentes
the three Brazilian soldiers had taken possession of Mr. Youd's forme?
residence where everything teemed with filth. Like the folks whom we
had met, the few men and women left behind immediately recogniseed
their "Domini" with the most striking manifestations of joy, and the news
of his return must have been spread rapidly because on that very same
day isolated parties came in from the near-lying settlements to bid him
welcome, and settle down again under their former shepherd. An hour
later the military, with bugles sounding were marched into the settlement
and drawn up in close formation before ther Mission house in front of
which a high flag-staff had been erected. i^The Commandant in a loud
voice next proclaimed the Queen of England as rightful owner of Pirara,
the soldiers presented arms, and the large Union Jack was hoisted amidst
a deafening hurrah. fThe wind unfolded the glorious colours of the
flag, and merrily it flew in the breeze as if it.wanted to tell Hie astonished
Indians who did not know what to do — whether to watch the black
faces, the brilliant red uniforms, the shining weapons, or the red, white,
and blue banner — "Gather round, for however far from home, I will
protect those who trust me." Some bottles of wine sealed the wish that
Pirara might never again look upon other colours. The two Brazilian
soldiers naturally regarded this ceremony like miserable sinners and on
that very same afternoon surrendered their rusty ammunition wrhich, for
three men, was fairly considerable, amounting as it did to several
hundred loaded cartridges. The Missionary still found the whole of
his household furniture at his old quarters. The big house that had
been built for the late commandant was taken possession of by the
soldiers until such time as their fortified barracks were completed : the
Governor had given strict orders that the latter were to b'e erected at a
certain distance away from the village so that nothing in the way of
immorality or other cause for marital strife might result from any
direct intercourse between the soldiery and the residents. With a view
also to stopping any trouble Beforehand, every soldier had to drink his
daily tot of rum in full view of the officer serving it out so as to prevent
its being given to the Indians, or used for any other sordid purpose.

858. Within forty-eight hours of our arrival Mr. Youd had left us
for a few days to visit his wife's grave at Curua settlement on the
Kupuuuni : it was she who from the very commencement had helped her
husband scattei-and care the seeds of Christianity and civilisation with
Mich blessed success. Even before the Brazilians had taken possession
of Pirara and banished them both, Mr. Youd had already founded a branch
mission at Curua above Wai-ipukari Inlet where from Pirara he once a
week celebrated divine service and imparted instruction in the neat
church that had been erected by the Macusis living on the river there.
It was here that he withdrew on his expulsion and where his wife
succumbed to the climate. But this branch mission had not been in full
swing more than a couple of months before the Brazilians came and
drove him from here also, whereupon he founded the Mission at
Waraputa.

306 ABEHISTO, THE BRAZILIAN.

859. We all knew beforehand that the war was not going to last
long, but none of us had imagined that it was not going to break out
at all. On this account the dreams of many a soul yearning to achieve
great deeds of triumph still remained visionary but as the present
business was to get so securely intrenched as to make the surprise-attack
by a more numerous military force, which had always to be reckoned on,
as difficult as possible, the field of honour at the same time developed
alas, into a scene of hard labour. To us people of peace on the contrary
this state of affairs was all the more welcome because there was now
nothing to obstruct or hinder our aims and objects of which we naturally
had been many a time fearful. As soon as Mr. Youd explained to the
wondering Indians that the redcoats with the black heads tad only come
to protect them from the "Caraibas," every one was ready to help
transport the ammunition and baggage over from the Awaricuru.

800. My brother was not a little surprised to find in Pirara an old
Brazilian acquaintance who now represented himseelf as the assistant
and servant of Friar Jose dos Santos Innocentes. Aberisto had also
remained behind at Pirara with the three Brazilians, and now tried his
level best to render himself useful. My brother had already made his
acquaintance in a strange way during Ids stay at Annay in 1835 when
he learnt not only his story, but also his character. While a number
of Indians were visiting him at Annay one day at his house, one of the
strangers suddenly picked up a weapon that was at hand and went
through the whole infantry exercise with such remarkable precision
as to call forth the loudly expressed astonishment of Lieutenant
Hanning, who was then accompanying the expedition as volunteer. The
Indian thereupon took a bit of paper and with a pencil wrote a
Portuguese greeting on it. As my brother spoke Portuguese it 'soon
transpired that the man was a Brazilian soldier who, to escape pursuit
on account of the killing of the commandant at Fort Sao Joaquim had
fled to the Indians. On account of the severe and tyrannical treatment
under which the garrison were labouring they hatched a conspiracy,
incited by Aberisto's thirst for revenge, to murder the officer. Aberisto
executed the deed while on guard duty at the gate of the Fort by stabbing
his man with a dagger from behind just as he was mounting his horse
for the usual evening promenade: the remaining conspirators had there-
upon rushed forward and killed the already expiring man outright with
some cannon-balls that had been heaped close at hand. Aberisto fled
and was at first pursued it is true, but by being so cunning escaped all
early attempts at capture which were soon abandoned, and lived among
the Macusis up to the time of the arrival of Friar Jose. During this
interval he had repeatedly placed obstacles in the way of Mr. Youd's
efforts, with the result that when the latter got to Georgetown he
obtained the Governor's order for Aberisto's expulsion from the settle*
ment, in spite of his having lived here so long before, if by chance he
were found in Pirara after the withdrawal of the Brazilians. Aberisto
had not only known how to approach Friar Jose when he came, but also
to render his services indispensable: it was through the latter's
mediation that he had been granted pardon and was appointed Mission
assistant.

LAKE AMUCXJ, i'HE .Cf&VFiio INLAND SEA. 307

861. Although it took but a few hours to recognise in him a Jack-of-
all-trades, who not only played the guitar in a masterly fashion, but was
also just as clever at shoeinaking, tailoring, carpentering, turning, in
tact at everything else, his cringing friendliness and complaisance
especially towards the officers, nevertheless shewed up his
perverse and unprincipled character : yet, in spite of everything, he knew
how to ingratiate himself so effectively with them, that the order for his
expulsion was not carried into effect, although there could be no doubt
that he had only been left behind as a spy.

862. I still call back to mind with deep pleasure that first morning
in Pirara when at break of day I jumped out of my hammock and
hastened in front of the village to gaze, undisturbed, on the wide wide
savannah. I stood here on soil rich in fable and myth, at my very feet
the "Mar de aquas blancas," the "Mar del Dorado," the "golden edged
lake," the "city of Manoa glittering with gold," whither the boldest
adventurers of Spain, Portugal and England had wandered ever since
the 16th century, including the four expeditions undertaken between
1595 and 1617 by the great yet unfortunate Walter Baleigh who knew
how to inflame Queen Elizabeth's imagination and ambition to so extreme
a degree. Lying ahead of me was Amucu, a small lake the existence of
which as an extensive inland sea where the great streams of South
America — the Essequibo, Orinoco and Amazon — were said to take their
rise, had already been shewn to be pure myth at the beginning
of the nineteenth century by the truly prophetic instinct of Alexander
von Humboldt : yes, lying before me was the cryptic inland sea that for
ages past had been eluding and yet ever alluring Spaniards, Portuguese,
Englishmen, and even Germans, and which even up to the most recent
times could not be dropped out of the maps. But I looked in \ain for the
"golden-edged lake." the imperial "city of Manoa glittering with gold."
My eyes only remained fixed on the dark rushes and giant grasses that
fringed the swampy borders of its surface that now had become so
insignificant in the dry season of the year. And yet around me lay a
landscape which my soul enjoyed to its very depths : a park of immense
extent bounded, on the north by the bleak Pacaraima, on the east by the
detached Makarapan Range that was blurred in the dim distance, and on
the south by a huge forested oasis that, commencing tolerably close to
Pirara, was illimitable towards the west where my vision rambled over
a wide and boundless pasture. Here in level flats and there in
lovely undulating rises, like the gently swaying waves of a mildly moving
sea, the spacious grassy plains stretched away in front of and past me,
while forested oases varying from a mile to but insignificant circumfer-
ence, built up of noble and tall trees, and edged with giant Cactus and
Agave, like islands in an ocean, broke the continuity of the yellowish-
green of the pasture. The somewhat uniform tinge of the flats received
however a certain additional variation from the small isolated bushes of
Malpighiaccac, Apocyncae, Lccjuminosac, Compostiae, Maluaccad
and Convoh'ulaceae in Between which families rose 15 to 18 feet high
trees of Ciiratclla, Psidium. Kowditchia, as well as occasionally a few
venerable palms, including "Aatrocaryum Tucnma Mart, a species that is
only present in the open pasture and almost always appears on the

308 FLO&A. Afti) FAtittA or T&E

edges of the pases between the Cactus and A gave. Two of the largest
pases that rise out of Lake Ainucu are without doubt the Islas Ipomucena
of Don Antonio Santos. On the western edge of the lake the river
Pirara makes its way out again to hurry on now to the Mahu, Takutu,
Kio Branco, Kio Negro, and so through these to the Amazon. Extending
somewhat to the East of its source is the watershed between the basins
of the Kio Branco and Eupununi : it is an insignificant undulating rise
dotted here and there with bleak masses of granite from 10 to 600 feet
in height, a characteristic peculiarity that essentially distinguishes
these grassy plains from those immense llanos and pampas of the
southern portion of South America, \To the southward, as a distinctly
visible sign of Pirara, some two hundred paces from the village, on the
slope of the hill on which it is situate, are to be seen two very old and
isolated palms (Astrocaryum Tucuma) the fronds of which are all
directed to the westward by the prevailing easterly wind : several huge
Agave and Cereus hexagonus and pentagonus Haw. have grouped them-
selves around their immense trunks for which they constitute an impene-
trable protecting wall. Pirara itself lies in 3° 39' 20" lat, N. and 59° 20'
long. W. The savannahs between the Rupununi and Kio Branco are
between 350 to 400 ft. above the level of the sea.

863. My first botanical excursion in the environs of Pirara was so
bounteously rewarded that when I began I did not know where first to
turn my eyes or my hands. f

864. I found the animal world on these free open flats just as new
to me as most of the vegetable representatives. Although one no longer
heard that crude and awful howling of the monkeys, those ear-splitting
screeches of innumerable parrots and social falcons (Falco nudicollis)
and only occasionally noticed in the isolated Curatella trees some pepper-
eaters (Rhamphastos Toco Linn.) but more often the red-headed fly-
catchers (Musclcapa coronata Linn.) as well as the equally pretty
Muscicapa Tyrannus Linn, with its two long tail-feathers of which the
•females' are considerably the shorter — the most beautiful humming-
birds such as Trochilus moschitiis and flavifrons, even though silent,
were present in proportionately greater numbers: in conjunction with
the most brilliant butterflies, they swarmed among the flower bushes.
Small falcons perched on top of the ant-hills lie in wait during ilie mid-
'day hour for their prey to come and visit the isolated trees while the
large Caracara eagles (Polyborus Caracara} fly along the Indian pads,

t — I am mentioning only a few of the representatives : Polygala Mollis, P. angustifolia
Humb. Bonp., P. galioides Poir., P. camporwm Benth., Amasonica erecta Linn., Neurocarpttm
longifolium Mart., Pavonia sped sa Humb. Bonp., Elephantopus angustifolius Sw., Unxia cam-
phorata Linn., Scoparia dulcis Linn., Wulfia platyglossa DeC., Couinubea ramosa Aubl., ScTtiilleria
coarctata, Benth., Bidens bipinnata Linn., Exrobedia scdbrifnlia Ruiz et Pav., Stemodia foliosa
Benth., Turnern apifera Mart., T. parviflora Benth., T. aurantiaca Benth., T. guianensis Benth.,
Bvr$»nima verbascifolia Humb. Bonp., Pba-xeolux linearis Humb. Bonp., SucTinera lavanduJacea
Chamss., a number of lovely bushes of Helicteres guazumaefttlia Humb. Bonp., Sterculia Ivira
Sw., covered with Eckite* coriacea Benth., then Cassia lotoides, cultrifolia, and prostrata Humb.
Bonp., Mieonia ciliata DeC., M.SchomliiraTrii Benth., Tfrmirhina aspera Aubl., Securidara
lalifolia Benth., 5. pnbiflora Benth., and Hirtella rubra Benth. In the forest oases in the
neighbourhood of Pirara I found a Pamiflora that grows into a real bush of which the
twig-terminals inclined somewhat to tendrils : the lovely delicate white petals and brown
nectary contrasted charmingly with the bright yellow calyx and the dark green leaves : it
turned out to be a new species, Passiflora (AstropJiea) gJaberrima Klotzsch.

HEEDS OF WILD CATTLE. 309

and the Falco cachinnans Linn, spies down from its tree top upon every
lizard and snake. Pretty little pigeons ( Columba, passcritm Linn, and (J.
talpacoti Tein.) and Sturnelfa Ludoviciana Bonap. search busily among
the grasses for their food, while the cooing of a large species (Colunrtt
rufina Tern.) sounds from out of the forested oasis. The carrion-crow
(Uathartcs aura) circles silently around in the air, innumerable
Mycteria Americana Linn, in conjunction with Ardca Icuce 111., strut
proudly about the swamps, the remnants of which are covered by all
kinds of duck, while coveys of pretty little partridges (L'crdix cnstata
Lath.) pop their heads from out of the bushy spots and shyly draw
back as soon as they observe the slightest sign of danger. All is quiet :
only an isolated note now and again interrupts the profound silence,
and yet the scattered herds of wild cattle, black and reddish-brown,
grazing everywhere in the savannah tend to enhance the idyl still more.
European cattle have multiplied at an inconceivable pace over the
savannah flats south of the Pacaraima ranges especially towards the river
Mahu, Takutu, and Rio Branco but not on the flats north and north-east
of this range, even upon the Annay and Haiowa which nevertheless are
connected with those of the Mahu. The herds of wild cattle that
specially graze in the neighbourhood of Pirara probably originate from
a farm that was started in 1796 with 50 head by Antonio Amorini and
Evora at the junction of the Takutu with the Rio Branco. The cattle
increased uncommonly quickly, but as the promoters carried on some
rather nefarious practices, they soon got into trouble and had to make
over the property to the Government which, up to now, still manages
it. Every beast that does not have the Government mark branded on
its right thigh is outlawed even on the Brazilian side of the border. On
Pirara being taken possession of by the Brazilians a considerable
number, of excellent cattle was brought to the neighbouring savannahs
and pastured in the environs of the village. Friar Jose had also
brought with him a considerable herd which was still under the super-
vision of the three soldiers who partly milked them every morning before
opening the pen, so that we were once more able to enjoy cafe au lait
for a few days. The attempts of the British soldiers to utilize some of
the tame oxen for transport turned out rather disastrously because
several of the stubborn animals went off and away with the baggage and
forced the disappointed drivers to collect it again after being scattered
all over the savannah.

865. As the military authorities, like ourselves, did not want to take
possession of the Public Buildings, in which Brazilian furniture and
property were still to be found, before the arrival of the Commandant and
Friar Jos6 from Sao Joa'qnim, and as the soldiers were to stay in the
village only until such time as all the baggage had been brought here
from the Awaricuru, the latter had pitched their tents alongside the Irig
empty-standing building, and securely intrenched themselves to with-
stand possible assaults. This action was rather facilitated by the large
number of sandbags that they carried with them, so that there was soon
to be seen through the loop-holes the sombre mouths of two cannon
Which, every night and morning to the great delight of the Indians wh.o.

310 DEER, DUCK AND PARTRIDGE FOR DINNER.

were daily gathering in greater numbers, thundered out the commencing
tattoo and reveille. Peaceful Pirara had become a fortress. .We fixed
our own large tents some distance away and up above them erected high
flag-staffs from which the British and Prussian colours fluttered gaily in
the continuous north easterly breeze. As all the boathands of the
combined Boundary and Military Expedition were still staying in the
village, and fresh parties of Indians moreover were incessantly wanting
to greet their "Domini" and expressing their readiness to do the trans-
port, Pirara presented every evening a busier scene of hustle and bustle
than it certainly had ever known before and which, naturally, will only
come again if civilising influences should ever extend into the interior,
in which case the present insignificant little settlement owing to its
uncommonly favourable situation will needs become of importance. Mr.
,Youd likewise neither wished to move into his house until the arrival
of Friar Jose, nor hold any divine service in the church built by that
individual, for which reason one of the houses that had remained
unoccupied was soon fitted up for the purpose.

860. The officers and ourselves all dining together both at noon and
at night, our table d'hote was fairly lively, and as everybody who shared
in it had to confribute game and fowl, there was always a most compre-
hensive and varied assortment of dishes. Of those that were and
certainly continued to be most in demand was one made with the Anas
brasilicnsis Linn., a species of duck hitherto unknown to us, and another
made of the small tasty partridge, although almost every day we
managed to get two to three of the many deer (Walking of the Macusis)
which I took to be a new. species.

8G7. We were still daily looking forward in vain to the arrival of
the Commandant from Fort Sao Joaquim; Antonio dos Barros Leal, and
Friar Jose without our being able to explain their extraordinary non-
appearance. We were thus sitting up late one evening, haj)py and com-
fortable, when one of the soldiers all of a sudden burst into the house
shouting "Brazilians," while outside of it also, the calling of the guard
and the clamorous voices clearly indicated that something must be
happening. Hurriedly rushing out of the house with the torches we
were met by an awful uproar. The word "Brazilians" had awakened
the already sleeping soldiers: weapon in hand these came tumbling out
of the tents and out of the door and windows of the big house : none had
given himself time to put" on uniform or trousers : almost the whole of the
army stood in closed ranks in their shirts, some of them even armed with
two guns, while lighted up by the blazing fire of the watch party and
several torches we saw the sentry who had given the alarm standing with
fixed bayonet in front of two men on small horses. Since no one spoke
Portuguese besides my brother he took the part of interpreter and asked
what they wanted — a question to which both replied that they were
bringing despatches from the Commandant at Fort Sao Joaquim for the
Governor in Georgetown. They were now made to ride close up to the
fire where they were regularly encircled by the inquisitive
Negroes, the sight of whose armed black figures, *t was quite
easy to see, did not tend to make the two poor devils, sitting

ARRIVAL OF FRIAR JOSE AND CAPTAIN LEAL. 311

their horses as if stuck on with glue, feel too much at ease :
they could not be blamed for this at all because, as they told us later,
they had no inkling of the arrival of the military in Pirara, and had
supposed that only the Boundary Expedition was here. After they had
been searched for weapons, and had handed over their despatches they
were allowed to dismount and pick a spot to sleep in among the soldiers
to whose supervision Lieutenant JJinghani handed them, while we over
another glass of wine had a laugh at the false alarm.

868. Next morning the two vaqueiros rode back to Sao Joaquim with
the request to the Commandant to fetch the soldiers and implements he
had left behind and six days later we received news that Friar Jose" dos
Santos Innocentes would be coming to Pirara. On the day appointed
all the military had to turn out in uniform and in conformity with their
visitor's rank give him a salute of nine shots with our mortars:
the Friar had formerly held the rank of major in the Brazilian
army and was known to my brother when previously staying at
San Joaquim during the rainy season of 1838 just as intimately as the
Commandant was. Everybody was already in uniform when some
Indians brought the news that the Friar would soon be here, as they had
met him in the neighbouring oasis were he was just then engaged over
his toilette. All our eyes naturally turned towards the boudoir out of
which the procession emerged not long afterwards on to the top of a small
rise that had hitherto hidden the caravan from view. At its head, the
Friar in black vestments and bare-headed, by his side a black Brazilian
soldier protecting him from the scorching heat with a large sunshade,
following him several soldiers without weapons, and bringing up the
rear his horse upon which he had ridden as far as the little bit of
forest. In measured tread and slow the little company entered the
village and amidst the firing of our mortars reached the front of our
tents where the pale and gaunt figure was received by my brother and
the officers. All political matters remained ignored in the speeches:
these were only to be discussed on arrival of the Commandant which was
timed for next morning. After Mr. Youd had also waited upon him in
full canonicals each withdrew to his own quarters. Already by next
forenoon we saw a troop of horsemen riding at a whizzing gallop over
the savannah up to the village : at its head we soon recognised Captain
Leal with a young woman who was riding straddle-back just like the
men. The escort might have consisted of some forty mounted vaqueiros.
After galloping also into the settlement the company came to a halt in
front of the Friar's house. Captain Leal dismounted and made towards
us in company with several soldiers. He also was a gaunt man of
medium size with dark complexion and black piercing eyes. In the
fateful years of Brazil he had served under the Cabanos, l>ut later on had
changed over to the Royalists, and still carried in his left cheek a
musket-ball : during some fight this had struck the right side of his face
where by knocking some teeth out it had gone through his mouth and
remained imbedded in the fleshy part of the left cheek. Although a
simple incision would have easily effected its removal, he nevertheless
cjid not seem to l>e able to part company with ifo

312 ENGLAND AND BRAZIL FOR EVER !

869. After the ceremonies of greeting came the turn of political
affairs when Captain Leal maintained that he could not leave Pirara
until he received orders from Para. Mr. Bingham on the other hand
informed him through my brother who also here had to act as inter-
preter, that he had already brought with him the most definite instruc-
tions from London according to which, with the march-in of the British
troops not a Brazilian was to be allowed in Pirara, and he could there-
fore no more permit him than Friar Jose to make a longer stay. Captain
Leal recognised that he had to yield to force.

870. With the exception of four soldiers his mounted escort
consisted of vaqueiros in short brown leather jackets and trousers, the
head covered with a broad straw hat. The wild-looking horses were of
medium size and carried saddles, also covered with brown leather: a
guitar hung from some of the latter so that the riders could have been
taken at first sight for a troupe of wandering minstrels rather than for
the military escort of a high officer on a not exactly peaceful mission.

871. As the Commandant and the Friar wrere our guests during
their stay, the officers like ourselves supplied the table with all the
delicacies in their possession so as to make the first meal as sumptuous
as possible which we absolutely succeeded in doing. The Friar became
especially lively after the emptying of only a few bottles of champagne,
which, as he asserted, he had not tasted for 30 years. Stiff ceremony
relaxed more and more with every bottle of wine until at last the guitar
was sent for and Aberisto came forward with several vaqueiros to play
and sing: striking some simple chords on his instrument for half an hour
at a time he accompanied the jubilant Friar and Captain Leal as they
relieved one another by turns with their songs of folk and freedom, and
improvised sentimental ditties respectively. Any stranger who might
have noticed us would have had difficulty in imagining two hostile parties
at this free and easy dinner party. Even our own Mr. Youd was
cheerier and brighter than ever and although speaking but broken Por-
tuguese he entered into friendly conversation with the Friar, so that here
again one would never have dreamt that the latter had pre\iously driven
out the former, or that the former was now anxious to reciprocate.
Only Captain Leal in the middle of his sentimental songs now and again
cast over the assembled company the most penetrating glances that
distinctly enough betrayed the hostile instincts raging within his breast,
which he yet tried as far as possible to hide beneath a smooth and jovial
exterior. At dessert Captain Leal drank to the health of the Queen of
England, Lieutenant Bingham to that of the Emperor of Brazil, and I
to the King of Prussia's: during the toasting, guns were fired, rockets
were lighted, and God save the Queen and Rule Britannia were struck up
on the bugles. One can imagine what an impression all this must have
made upon the Indians thronged in numerous groups around the house
as they stared in astonishment at the fizzing rockets shooting into the
skies, as they listened to the thunder of the cannon and the general
goingskm, as well as at the shouting and the singing in our quarters that
were now arranged as for a dining-room.

SENHORA LIBERADI^A DANCES THE BADUCCA. 313

872. Things seemed to be taking a lively turn in tue large house
which the vaqueiros and Brazilian soldiers were occupying, because a pecu-
liar sound, accompanied by the tremolo of the guitar was coming from
that direction when we got into the open air : the beloved Badrucca was
being danced, a dance that was repeated every evening during our guests'
stay — for how could the pleasure-loving and lively Brazilians let an
evening pass without its being performed? As we stepped into the house
a handsome corporal was just then dancing with the pretty and fiery
young Brazilian woman, Senhora Liberadifia, the wife of one of the
vaqueiros whom we had not seen again since her arrival and had
forgotten all about. /The languishing look she cast at Captain
Leal, from whom an equally tender one was returned, expressed
clearly enough on her own part that she would rather have spent the
day in his than in her husband's company, while a side-glance from the
Captain at us showed her that this was unfortunately impossible. The
Baducca is always performed in couples and except for a continual
snapping of the thumbs consists of the most wanton and obscene gestures
and movements of the body, particularly of the artful turning and
twisting of the hips, during which both partners, like the Negroes when
they dance, now advance, and now retire, the figures being regulated by
the monotonous chords of the guitars and by the improvised singing.

873. Captain Leal at our request now let his " subordinate retire
and started dancing with Senhora Liberadifia as gracefully as possible,
both performers trying to bewitch us with sentimental improvised songs
of which the officers formed the main subject! matter and we the balance.
With murmurs of applause, for both had indeed tried to surpass them-
selves in grace of movement as well as in neatness of execution, the
couple finally retired and were replaced by vaqueiros to whom Mr.
Bingham's present of rum, that seemed to be just as rare a drink for
them as champagne was for the Captain and Friar, had made uncom-
monly merry and 'talkative. On the days following they continued to
amuse themselves in addition with different round games that reminded
me forcibly of the old "Tit-tat-toe," etc.* : these games were all accom-
panied on the guitar and regulated by its music.

874. As the Commandant had brought no provisions with him from
Sao Joaquim, the vaqueiros were sent out in the morning to rope in one
of the biggest oxen in the savannah, and they soon returned to the
village where it was to be killed with a huge tall well-built steer, the long
pointed widely-separated horns of which were particularly noticeable.
Interested as I had been in the lassoing, I was the more shocked at the
manner of slaughter. After throwing another lasso over its head^ the
latter was pinned flown to the ground by an arrangement so contrived
that the wildly-st niggling beast could not move it. Sneaking with his
long sharp knife close up to the chained colossus, a vaqueiro tried to cut
the'Achilles tendons of its hind-feet immediately above the hoofs which,
however, hte only succeeded in doing after the fourth or fifth stroke at1
each foot. After the first stab the distressed feast did its very best to

*_» Wer die Gans ges'ohlen hat, der ist ein Dieb " etc. i.e. He who stole the goose
is % thief, etc,

BRUTAL METHOD OF KILLING CATTLE.

keep its tormentor continually in view, but owing to its restrained
position was prevented doing so, the vaqueiro in the meanwhile prowling
round it like a cat awaiting a fresh and favourable opportunity for the
furious creature to stop kicking out behind, kicks which he only escaped
through his really admirable agility. The tendons of both hind feet
being hacked through at last, the steer now bellowing wildly fell on its
haunches to the ground where it supported itself half upright with its
forefeet, the tendons of which had now also to be divided. The tortured
and furious beast, the whole of its huge carcase trembling with rage and
its muzzle sweating with dense blobs of white foam, could now follow
every movement of the vaqueiro and watch the blade quivering in its
descent, which it tried to avoid by continually stamping its feet. When
finally one of these was likewise hacked across, the exhausted animal yet
supported itself upon the last remaining one, when it tumbled on its side
and still tried several times to rise. With gruesome and revolting laughter
the remaining va'queiros next surrounded the now harmless animal which,
quivering and bathed in sweat, tossed its head in all directions, and with
a dull heart-rending moan attempted to stand erect, until one of the
executioners stuck his long knife several times into its chest. They
had tormented the poor brute for more than half-an-hour in the most
cruel fashion only because, as the vaqueiros maintained, the flesh became
more tender and soft in this way.

875. The perilous and hard life of the vaqueiros who for the most
part consist of Negroes, whites, or mulattoes, seems to show its effects
upon their disposition and habits. The vaqueiro has always to be in the
saddle, the supervision of the immense herds requiring his presence
everywhere along the boundaries of his master's estate, here to protect
them from the onslaughts of jaguars, there to gallop after the straying
cattle which he follows at heel through savannah and forest. In the
latter case everything depends upon his riding through the opening
made in the thicket by the animal breaking a way in before it closes
again; he must keep pressing hard behind the beast until an open
space gives him room to throw his lasso. Besides tlii* continual
supervision, which often necessitates his changing horses several times a
day, he has to see to the branding of his master's animals, and to bring
the cattle in for killing. Every farm has its stock-yard, its Kodeio,
into which the cattle are annually driven; this is effected by the
vaqueiros having previously drawn a cordon around the scattered herds
and then gradually closing in as they reach it. It is in the rodeio where
the young animals then get their brand-numbers and the required cattle
slaughtered.

876. Owing to the Brazilian Government, as already mentioned,
having caused a great quantity of cattle to be driven over to the village
savannahs when they took possession of Pirara, the Commandant had
brought this large number of va'queiros with him to return not only the
Government animals but also those belonging to Friar Jose back to their
old pasture-grounds. Mr. Youd bought six cows from the latter, and
three horses from the Commandant, from whom the officers also ordered
a riding horse for their common use,

A VISIT FKOM SOME MAIONGKONGS, 315

877. The savannah presented an unusually lively appearance now
that the vaqueiros with their long pikes (tipicsscn) and still longer
lassoes, astride their quick horses, hunted like Cossacks over the broad
grassy plains to collect the widely-scattered herds and chase them back
to Fort Sao Joaquim. If any deer happened to be caught in the drive
they were all the more certain to become the spoil of the lasso, because
their small horns proved no obstacle to the enveloping noose. Senhora
Liberadina who, like an Amazon on her little horse, flew over the savannah
with the swiftness of the wijid, seemed to have mounted it just to invoke
our admiration at her smart pursuit of the deer, and skill in lassoing
it. With the first two animals killed, that were slung on her high saddle,
she then proudly entered the village, her big toes in the narrow stirrups,
her naked heels with pointed spurs.

878. Next day the Brazilians evacuated the village. At the head of
the procession — that consisted partly of pack-horses, partly of Indian
carriers, several of whom were transporting the vesper-bell on a long

.rafter — rode Friar Jose, Commandant Leal, and Seuhora Liberadiiia.
As they made off Captain Leal wished us the following hearty good-bye;
he desired nothing else than that he might have to appear at the head of
an army before Pirara, so as to repay our hospitality in a way which at
the present moment was impossible.

879. Hardly had these guests left us than they were replaced by a
new but different lot on the following day. It was a long string of
Maiongkongs, a tribe occupying the watershed of the upper Orinoco and
its tributary, the Parirna. My brother no sooner discovered amongst
them some acquaintances he had made on his journey to the sources of
the Orinoco in the years 1838 and 1839 than he was recognised by them
with the heartiest manifestations of delight. The chieftain, a brother
of his guide as far as Parima on that particular journey, spoke Portuguese
fairly well, so we got to learn that their settlement was situate on the
River Cunucunuma, a tributary of the upper Orinoco, and that he, the
chieftain, having been told by his brother that axes were to be obtained
in Georgetown, was now on his way there to get some: certain of his
people, from hearing my brother talk, still remembered the approximate
direction of the capital. They had followed the Orinoco from the
Cunucunuma as far as the Cassa'quiare and so reached tlio Rio Negro,
had then followed this down to the mouth of the Rio Branco, travelled
up the latter to Fort Sao Joaquim, and thus reached Pirara now by
means of the Takntu and Malm. In this way they had within three
months covered a distance of not loss than 1,000 miles partly by water
ami partly overland: tliey now proposed' resuming their journey to
Georgetown here from Pirara, the approximate situation of which they
had also learnt, — to fetch a few axes. They were a big and finely
developed people, the greater number of whom measured from 5ft. 6
inches to 8 inches, their body at the same time appearing more compact
and muscular and their facial features more rounded than those of the
other tribes hitherto known to me. The forehead was small and
receding, while the eyes which lay close to each other, were more obliquely
slit, and shaded with long eye-lashes; eyebrows and beard were

316 ON A BARTERING EXPEDITION.

depilated. Just as with the Caribs the objectionable custom of tying
tight bandages above and below the calves of the little girls immediately
after birth so as to force the latter to an artificial overgrowth only
prevails among the women, it was practised here by the Maicngkong men
whose muscles of the upper arm were at the same time swollen to an
unnatural size by similar ligatures. Instead of the necklaces and
beaded-strings on the ankles and upper arms the women wore cords
plaited out of human hair, a material that the men twined round their
loins like thick waist-belts, to which the apron was attached. The
thicker such a belt (Matnpa) the more surely did it bear witness to the
courage of the wearer because the hair of fallen enemies is only employed
in its manufacture. The aprons of the women were made of cotton fringes
and were generally coloured red. The men's elegant feather decorations
consisted for the greatest part of thick head-fillets of the red and yellow
feathers which the RhampJiastos erytlirorhynclws and R. v-llcttinus grow
immediately above the root of the tail. As the Guinaus, Uaupes and
Pauixanas, as well as the Maiongkongs manufacture their head-dresses
as well as regular mantles out of these feathers, both species of Rham-
pliastidae would soon be exterminated were not an extremely shrewd
precaution taken to prevent this destruction of their wardrobe supplies.
To this end they only employ a very small arrow smeared with extremely
weak poison, with the result that the wound inflicted by such a weapon
is too insignificant to be mortal, while the low strength of the urari only
makes the bird lose its senses: it falls down, the feathers required are
pulled out, and after a short while, it recovers to be perhaps shot and
robbed again subsequently. Judging from the number of Cephalopterus
feathers, particularly the crests and the brilliant metallic breast-tufts,
this beautiful bird must be present in large numbers in the land of the
Maiongkongs.

880. The articles which they proposed bartering in George-
town for axes and knives consisted of hammocks, large balls of fine
exquisitely-spun cotton, graters, shirts that they call Marima, and
the most beautiful hunting dogs. ,The articles of dress just mentioned,
that had already claimed Alexander von Humboldt's attention are made
from the inner bast-sheath of a tree, probably a palm that they call
Tururi : every shirt certainly costs one tree its life. After this is felled
and the outer layer of bast removed, the inner one is pounded until such
time as it allows of its being easily stripped from the trunk. The thicker
end of the tree forms the body, the thinner one the sleeves, which are sewn
on to the former : these are the only seams of the garment. When the
people saw that we had knives, axes, in short, everything thai: they wanted,
and that we were willing buyers of their trade, especially their dogs,
their friendship was still further cemented — they could now turn straight
back home without having cause to build corials beforehand on the
Rupununi and travel in them to Georgetown. After a few days' stay all
the party returned happy and contented to Cunucunuma.

881. The whole of the baggage was now brought to Pirara, and the
boathands of the military expedition as well as our coloured crew,
Waikas and Warraus, set about getting ready to take the boats back to

THE HUINS OF PIKARA KEPAI£ED. 317

Georgetown. Of our own people there remained only the four Germans,
three Negroes, including Hamlet, and the coloured man Huidrick, the
coxswain, under whose authority our men were to be placed from now
on. The officers who took their departure included the Adjutant,
Lieutenant Bush, Police Inspector Crichton and Post-holder McClintock j
the military doctor had to go along with them because his sickness seemed
to .be getting ever worse and worse.

882. On saying good-bye to Mr. Bach, he had promised to pack all
consignments of living plants coming from the interior as carefully as
possible and despatch them to Berlin, for it was more than a matter of
impossibility that I myself could accompany every transport from the
interior to the coast. I accordingly seized this favourable opportunity
and despatched my valuable and comprehensive collection of living
orchids and palms with the boats to Georgetown, in certain hope that
they would reach Berlin in good condition. Unfortunately, however, I
had to suffer bitter experiences in this respect, although I found at least
a certain amount of consolation in the absolute knowledge that nothing
it was at all in my power to do, had been neglected.

883. As the military had paid the Indians in cash for the work of
transporting their effects, one noticed now amongst the buckeens nothing
but neck-chains made of Spanish quarter-dollar pieces, of which many a
pretty young girl wore from ten to twelve, as presents from her admirers.
Included in this money was almost the whole of the soldiers' pay which,
in the absence of other opportunities, was spent in the purchase of fowls,
game, etc., from the Indians.

884. After the boat-hands left, general quiet prevailed. Mr. Youd
moved into his former quarters where he made himself as comfortable as
he could. The house which hitherto had served as church and had to
continue so until a new one could be built, was supplied with benches
and a simple altar, etc., the missionary at the same time starting to give
lessons in which even the grown-ups, particularly girls and women, took
part. The population had now increased to 300 souls; the wholly and
half dilapidated houses were again repaired, streets to be bordered with
new buildings were laid out on a regulated plan, and a site pegged out for
a church, so that the work of reconstruction should start straight away
with the commencement of the wet season, when the building-materials,
palm-leaves, etc., could be fetched more easily out of the distant forests
by corial : in short, everything promised that the dreamed of El Dorado
would indeed soon be rising on the former site of the little village.
Unfortunately it happened otherwise, otherwise at least for the present.
Should however this thrice-favoured tract of country ever be taken up in
the future, should civilisation sooner or later make its way li-om the coast
into the interior, Pirara, owing to its favourable situation, would
constitute the proper centre whence its products could be conveyed just as
easily along the continuous waterways to the Orinoco and Amazon as to
the mouth of the Essoquib'o, an advantage that only a few spots could
offer in the hinterland of a continent with lands so extensive an3
conditions of soil so ricK.

885. 'Although the main curiosity of most of the Indians had l>een
and we now on the whole could move about more freely and

318 THE INDIANS SATISFY THEIR CURIOSITY*.

unobserved, our 'quarters were nevertheless surrounded by regular
groups of them for hours at a time as soon as we started eating, writing,
or reading. At the first of these occupations we must have seemed
greater cannibals 'than they to us. With chaffing face?, continually
making funny remarks, and laughing heartily, they criticised not only
our actions and viands from a distance, but many of the women stepped
with absolute self-possession up to the table, put their hand in a dish,
seized a bit of meat, smelt it, threw it back again, and then spat
contemptuously. We were absolutely certain of such unbidden and
unceremonious visitors when the table was provided with pickled meat,
to which they showed such an antipathy that they even held their noses
on entering the house; this was a good hint never to let it be missing
from the menu. They had a similar aversion to sour dishes. Though they
regarded us with pitiful disdain when eating, they were all the more awed
and astonished at the reading and writing. They looked upon every printed
or written word as something supernatural and followed the eyes of the
person reading with the keenest tension, they being firmly convinced
that the page betrays their own most hidden thoughts to the reader. An
accidental find of a piece of paper proved the greatest treasure for them
and in none of the lessons had Youd so many and such studious pupils as
in the writing and reading hour.

886. The savannah was now my daily abode: in all directions I
roamed the forest oases which particularly afforded rich botanical and
zoological results. Though a number of representatives were missing
from the higher orders, because these were only represented by deer, I
found the insects not only much more abundant but also representative of
families and species absolutely different from those on the coast. Amongst
Lepidoptera, the Diurna and Nocturna were far more plentiful here than
there; on the other hand I found but a few Crgpuscularia. Amongst
Coleoptcra the families Bvprcstidac, Scarabacidae, Cemm'bicidae, the
Curculionidae which were loudly effecting the destruction of the mighty
trees, and Chrysomelidae rendered themselves conspicuous: amongst
Hemiptem the sub-order Homoptera was more numerously represented
in the Cicadidae.

887. As my present stay happened to strike the dry season of the
year I was in a position to explore without let or hindrar.ee not only
the low-lying savannah but also the greater portion of the dried-up basin
of lake Amucu, on the tall reed and sedge-like grasses of which the marks
of the water level during the rainy season could be distinctly traced. The
ground was regularly strewn with the empty shells of Ampullaria,
gmanensis and papyracea Spix. Innumerable Caracara eagles, swarms
of waders (Charadrius cayennensis) , and large grey Ibis (Ibis albicollis
Lath. ) with their peculiar cry rending the air in all directions, as well as
Sturnella Ludoviciana Bonap., put life into these spots now devoid of
water. But where swamps were occasionally found with plenty of water
and bordered by Caladium and broad-leafed sedge they vividly called
back to mind the animated scene at the mouth of the Waini and Barirna.
Though the brilliant plumage of the red ibis, spoon-bill and flamingo
were wanting, the sight of the huge waders was none the less imposing.

FAUNA OP LAKE A.MUCU. 819

Hundreds of giant storks (Mycteria Amerivam), Cicojua Maguari,
several species of heron and the big glutton (Tantalu* loculator Linn.)
were hunting after their numerous prey here. .Were I to draw near one
of these spots with my Indian followers our plan of campaign was quickly
sketched : like cats we sneaked through the coarse swampy grass to the
waterside so as to watch the feathered gathering for a while unnoticed.
Solemnly and peaceably the large cranes and storks strutted in and out
between each other around the water's edge, and sunned or batlied
themselves in it, while a really illimitable number of noisy swainp--fowl
(Podiccps) and ducks, each species in separate groups, actually hid its
surface: the bitterns stood up in it to the level of their plumage
waiting for a fish to pass along. When at last a rash movement on our
part betrayed our presence to a watchful heron, the whole feathered host
rose at a given signal with a truly infernal uproar and hovered around
in extensive circles. But although these thousands every time took to
the wing in the most disorderly rout, the different genera and species
nevertheless immediately separated themselves the one from the
other. The huge Mycteriae with their featlierless neck and head, big
beak, and scarlet-red ring at the base of the naked neck, rose just like
our storks in circles high up into the air, until they finally disappeared
almost beyond range of vision. Only the small Vississi ducks with their
piping note seemed to be regularly banned from our neigh bourhood. As
soon as we were discovered my Indians would always jump up to their
necks into the water and from this standpoint keep on shooting their
well-directed arrows into the crowds swarming around. If the creatures
were flying high and so could see the advancing weapon they immediately
made an opening for it all round, just like our flocks of pigeons when a
bird of prey darts across them. But in effecting such an tmruly
manoeuvre they often struck each other so violently as to break their
wings and fall down stunned. The confusion was still greater when,
pushing one another aside like this, two different groups of birds cam 3
into conflict. I have then seen from five to eight specinr-MS fall to the
ground without more than one being wounded by the arrow. If during
such a mix-up the birds were within range of my gun I usually got ten or
twelve at a shot. The Anas moscJiata were at all events smarter than the
others because, when rising in a body they sought sure safety in flying
apart. iThe bag of a single hunting party was accordingly generally so
considerable that we were able to satisfy the wants of almost all our
people.

888. From a botanical point of view these swampy situations also
supplied me with a number of interesting forms.f

889. The continued activities of the water fowl, in addition to the
abundance of fish that the Indians daily brought in, had already
indicated how plentifully these watery spots must at the same time be
stocked. As the LoncKocarpu* densiflorna Benth., grew in fair quantity

t Herpeatev g r at iol aides Benth, which covers almost the whole of the swampy surface
Poli/gala apprex.ia Benth , P. ht/gr«phyla Humb. Bonp., P. variabihs Humb. Bonp., Sipaiiea
dichotoma Humb. Bonp., Paronia cancellata Cav., P. anfjustifolia Benth., MeJochia gramnifolia
St. Hil. Wedelia hixpida Humb. Bonp.. Coutoubta reflexa Btnth., Licania pemhila Benth.
Limnanihemum HumboltUianum Griseb., Cuphaea micranthra Humb. Bonp,. Melvilla l^iiK.l etc.
were the most conspicuous.

A FORT is BUILT.

close to the sources of the Pirara, poisoning of the water by the milky
juice of its roots was the method especially adopted for catching fish.
That the poison not only acts upon the respiratory organs as can be
vecognised from the difficulty in gasping for air and widely opened gill-
covers, but that it affects the nervous system to an equal degree is
shewn by the generally dilated pupils of the dying fish* Although the
giant Sudis gigas appeais to be fairly plentiful in these waters, the
amount of poison must nevertheless be too infinitesimal for its
respiratory and nervous systems, because I never succeeded in gaining
possession of one of these monsters by this means. Supposing the Indians
do not happen to have the root just to hand, they dam off a shallow area
of the swamp, and empty the water out with their calabashes, for which
purpose they place themselves side by side in a long row, their backs to
the dam, and with astonishing rapidity dash the water between their
outspread legs over it. As it was impossible for us ta consume the
spoils of such a fishing venture at one and the same meal, we used to fix
up huge boucans (Rauchereien) so as to ensure its palatableness for at
least a few days to come.

890. That idleness is at the root of all evil was demonstrated only,
too soon in our previously so peaceable Pirara. Although Lieutenant
Binghain had given the most stringent orders that the military were
only to stop in the village for a few days, the big building or fazenda
proved so eminently adapted for a barracks, that they had up to now
clean forgotten about employing his men at throwing up and erecting a
Fort away from the settlement. The very serious complaints of the
Indians to Mr. Youd, that their women and daughters did not dare
venture outside their houses by themselves and that several of them had
been made drunk and abused, could not allow him to remain indifferent,
and his resolute threat to leave Pirara at once and make open complaint
in Georgetown about the neglected execution of their orders, at last
forced the officers to look around for a suitable site for the construction
of a fort which they found south-east from the river's source where they
forthwith commenced the work.

891. As the Boundary Expedition wrere unable to start on their
journey to the sources of the Takutu for several weeks to come, and as
the environs of the village and of the lake had already been made the
most of by me for the particular time of year, I determined to spend the
interval on a trip to the Canuku Ranges where the prospect presented
itself of a harvest equally rich in plants and animals. There I ought to
find the beautiful "Cock of the Rock" (Rupicola aurantia Vieill.) and
equally interesting Bell'-bird (Chasnarhynchns camnculatus Tern.) and
fls I likewise still dared to hope, the Strychnos toxifera Schomb. in flower,
the notorious creeper which supplies the chief ingredient of the terrible
Urari poison.

* The catch for the most part consisted of Ofteofllotntm biairrlomm Spix., Acara margarita
Heckel, Paou nigrican* Spix., Geophaqus jurupari Heckel, CJiaelobranchus flavescens Heckel,,
Leporintisfanciatus Mull. Trosch., Frederici Agass., Anodus alburnus Mull. Trosch., A. cyprino-
ides Mull. Trosch., Cichla ocellariv Bloch., Crenicichla saxatilis Heckel, Mi/Jetes rttbripinnis
Miill. Trosch.. Myleus setiger Miill Trosch., and Schizodonfascwtus Agass.

CHAPTER IX.

Excursion to the] Canuku Range — Watershed between the Mahu
and the Rupununi — Awarra village — Virgin forest — Bed of the Quaye —
River Nappi — Nappi village — Burial ceremonies of the Macusis — Indus-
try of the inhabitants of the Canuku Range — Weapons — Blow-gun — As-
cent of the Curassaivaka — Chasmarhynchus carunculatus — Rupicola
aurantia — Ascent of the\ IlamiMpantf — Strychnos toxifera — Prepara-
tion of the Urari poison — Wassi poison — Return to Pirara — Habits of
the Cathartes aura — Preparations for the journey to the sources of the
Takutu.

892. The necessary preparations were soon completed, and as iny
poor Stockle was just then down with a bad attack of fever, 1 left Pirara
one morning in company with {TJiedge, one of pur Germans, and six
Macusis whom I had hired partly as carriers and partly as hunters, and for
that purpose had supplied them, to their great satisfaction, with
,w;ea'pon$. ^Though the path was of so little interest at first as to offer
me nothing new throughout, this uniformity nevertheless disappeared
after a march of a few hours, when we reached the highest point on this
extensive plain, a range of hills, that at the same time constitutes the
watershed between the tributaries of the Mahu and Rupununi, and
might be some 120 feet above the level of Lake Amucu. The pleasant
shallow dales stretched out before me like a large rich carpet interwoven
by dark threads of sap-green foliage bordering the numerous streams
and innumerable Mauritia palms, while far to the southward the
two picturesque perpendicular granite crags of the Canuku Range, Nappi
and Curassawaka, thrust their sombre summits far above the surrounding
vegetation. Wherever any spot rose above the general level, the never-
resting ever-restless little troops of termites had formed a settlement.
Our path, which from now on lay towards S.W., along the so-called
watershed, led us past several of these structures, the height of which
measured over 12 feet with a base of 19 ft. in circumference. Now they
formed spiral pyramids, now columns with capitals, or resembled giant
mushrooms with wide brimmed tops : one sought in vain, however, for
the entrance or exit that lay far underground and the only indications
of which appeared at a considerable distance away. For solidity, their
outer shell is in no sense inferior to our burnt stone, so that they are
devoid of all vegetation, not even grass growing on them : in fact, a
strong blow is required to knock off a piece. Hardly is this attempted,
however, than thousands of the inhabitants rush out of the opened
passage. The soldiers show themselves first and are to be recognised at
once by their thicker and more elongated head : their mandibles are also
much longer, but are fitted over one another more closely and strongly
than those of the others. When the danger is past the busy creatures
immediately start upon repairing the damage. The building always
starts from inside, for which reason no one notices the insects working,
their activity being betrayed only at the damp spots visible here and
there. According to the different coloured clay which is utilised for

322 FOUL PLAY is WRONGLY SUSPECTED.

the building material these structures present at the same time an un-
commonly variegated appearance. A second species occupy rather the
lower savannah; their "hills" are usually only 2 to 3 feet high and have
quite the shape of a bee-hive turned upside down.

893. Under a really consuming and scorching temperature of 128°
Fahrenheit we continued our course along gently undulating ground,
the higher levels of which were overstrewn with quartz and granite frag-
ments and boulders of a coarse-grained quartz conglomerate cemented
.with ferruginous clay, in between which grew; the dainty Diodia rigida
Chniss. Schlcht., and a new species of the Cissampelos, very peculiar in
its external appearance, which Dr. Klotzsch has described as subcrenata.
Glred and exhausted, we reached Awarra village in which we made up
our minds to spend the night, so as to gather renewed strength for the
following morning. 'The fairly large settlement was also situate on a
small rise. The inhabitants happened to be all in Pirara : only some old
women and several small children, for whom the road to Pirara had been
too laborious, remained behind. This absence was all the more agreeable
to me because I now trusted that I would sleep undisturbed, with which
hope in view I immediately threw myself into my hammock. It might
have been somewhere about midnight when I was gently awakened by
Tiedge, who had slung his bed close beside mine, whispering that he
thought our companions seemed bent on mischief. At first I was some<-
what startled at what he told me, and raising myself in my hammock
saw by the light of the fire, which was still burning, that my companions
were also sitting in their hammocks, where they were closely examining
the guns in their hands. The one took aim with his weapon, while the
other removed the charge and reloaded ; in short they kept on practising
both operations. This unexpected discovery seemed to me at all events
suspicious, but on mature consideration I concluded that they could
have no hostile intention in view because not only was the unmistakable
good-nature and peaceability of the tribe opposed to any such measure,
but the proximity of so considerable a force that had their relatives, etc.,
absolutely in its power, must have made any surprise attack doubly
dangerous. The correctness of my surmise was soon clearly establish-
ed. The journey had naturally not tired these men, accustomed to such
a temperature, so much as it had both of us, and to while away the time
they had taken iip and scrutinised weapons so rare and important for
them : reassured, I lay down again in my hammock and slept until shortly
before sunrise when we resumed our journey. Tiedge had certainly not
been able to allay his mistrust, and candidly admitted that he had not
closed his eyes the whole night. The narrow path still lay ever ahead of
us in the open savannah, the rises of which were here and there occupied
by low bushes of Myrtus, Byrsonima, Melastoma and Hirtella, while the
swampy plains were covered with a low growth of grass and occupied
by glorious Mauritia palms, elegant Poly gala, Hibiscus and Convol-
volus: the palms were alive with innumerable parrakeets, the swampy
spots forming a promenade for the many Myctenac and herons. Upon the
rises which we crossed in the course of the day, the smooth light-tiro wri
bark drew my attention to several frees already fief ore the Indians hurried

THAT LOOK LIKE HORSE-TAILS. 323

off to rob them of their produce. The first glance at the ripe greenish
fruit which had an extremely sweet aromatic taste, told me that it must
belong to the Myrtaceae family : I was confirmed in this by several iso-
lated blossoms that the tree still possessed. It was a true Myrtus, which
Dr. Klotzsch has named Myrtus Schomburgkii. As this same genus
strangely enough, notwithstanding the numerous kinds of Psidium and
Eugenia, is only represented by a few species, the discovery was all the
more acceptable, particularly because its juicy and aromatic fruit proved
at the same time so refreshing in the scorching heat. In the wooded
oases past which the path now led, I was also struck with the peculiar
't'lttllwiKtsia usneoides Linn, on the living as well as dead and leafless
trees : they hung like long horse-tails down from the branches, and were
swayed hither and thither by the current of air. Upon looking at this
peculiar plant without inflorescence, especially for the first time, it
must surely be taken for a lichen. The dead and withered trees with these
dependent Tillandsia presented a particularly striking appearance; for
with the death of the host the parasite also dies though it ]ong rejtains
its position. I have only rarely seen it on the lifeless trunks, gener-
ally upon the outermost twigs of the branches and tops.*

894. An extensive swampy flat, into which some white herons and
great crowrds of waders put some life, and where the most lovely groups
of Mauritia palm could be seen, alone separated us now from the wall-
like virgin forest out of which the densely wooded Canuku Range, with
its two remarkable and distinctly prominent rocky pinnacles, the Nappi
and Curassawaka, was striving to the skies: the latter in particular
rose bleak and bare above the obscure forest like a giant cylinder, its
immediate summit being again clothed with thick vegetation.

895. It was high time for us to seek shelter under the forest shadows,
because for more than an hour we had been pressing along in a temper-
ature of 134° Fahr., and I must admit that during all this time I was not
full master of my senses, for thousands and thousands of glimmering
stars kept madly rushing past, until I finally seemed to be rushing
through a complete rain of fire writh everything at the same time swirl-
ing and circling round me. iThe same thing happened to Tiedge, but
neither of us was in a position to bring a single word out of our
parched up mouths. What with the burning and scorching rays of the
sun from above and the reflected heat of the savannah from below, we
thought we were treading on hot slabs — truly it was almost unbearable.

896. While making our way over the swampy flat, a relief from our
distress, I noticed several Cyrtopodiae, Gcdendra juncca and Bauari
Lindl., Habenaria, longicauda Jlook., and the Monachanthus viridis
Linrll. On arriving at the banks of the Quaye, we greedily sought in
vain the refreshing and cooling waters which the glowing sun had long
ago consumed: its bed like the banks of the Amucu lay full of shells of

* On the edges of the wooded oases which we passed I found particularly plentiful :—
Selicteres /juazitmaefolia Humb. Bonp., Apeiba Tibourbou Aubl., Herpesti* ffratioloides Benth..
Cassia undulata Benth., C. viscosa Humb. Bonp., Peltogyne paniculata Benth., Mimosa forilund a
Willd., Miconia brevipes Benth., while the thorny Entada myriad fiiia Benth. covered whole
surfaces of the undergrowth with its white blossoms.

324 BUTTRESSES SUPPORT COLOSSAL TREES.

the 'Ampullaria guianensis and papyracea Spix. But what passionate
mollusc-eaters the water and swamp-fowl of this district must be*
for amongst the thousands of empty shells not a single one was found
uninjured !

897. After crossing the drjed-up swamp, we were confronted with a
large provision field of growing Musa and luxuriantly thriving sugar-
cane and soon stood in front of a small lowly and miserable empty
house. Curiosity had also driven the occupants to Pirara: legions of
hungry fleas alone remained behind to attack us with such raging greed
that my trousers were completely dotted with them while the Indians
tried to keep free by stamping with their feet. The longed;for
rest which it was therefore impossible to get inside the house had now
to be found outside, when the Indians brought us the ripest of bananas
and the juiciest of sugar-canes, so that with the help of the latter our
frenzied thirst was son?3what soothed.

898. After a few hours' rest we resumed our journey through the
sombre and shady forest, the thickly interlaced tree-tops of which re-
called to mind exactly the giant vegetation of the Upper Barima. Had
we not been able to follow a much frequented path, the innumerable
Heliconiae, Rapatefie, Bromeliue, Calathea, Alpinia latifolia Willd.
and huge ferns and tree-like grasses would have offered obstacles which
we should have had difficulty in overcoming in our present exhausted con-
dition. (The huge Bonibaccae, often more than 160 feet in height,
specially interested me on account of their curious root-necks. One could
almost regard the radiating tabular roots, if one may thus designate
these peculiar structures, running out from the trunks in some trees
ten to twelve feet above the ground, as the normal buttresses which
Nature has lent the colossal trees to protect them against the fury of
the tropical storms. When the Indians want to fell a tree of this descrip-
tion they erect a scaffolding that reaches up to the real trunk. I also
found the Spondias lutea uncommonly plentiful here:
its ripe fruits perfumed the whole forest. Amongst
the palms new to me, I was very much taken with the
Iriartca vcntricosa Mart., Bactris concmna Mart., B. mitis Mart..,
tihamaedorca pauciflora Mart., the delicate Geonoma acutiflora, Mart.,
G. laxiflom Mart., and the tall slender Acrocomia, sclerocarpa Mart.,
all of them forms with which von Martins had already made us ac-
quainted, but which, however, were seen by me for the first time, while
those that were familiar to me, the Oenocarpus Batmia, and minor, Lepi-
docaryum gmcile, Euterpe oleracea, Maximiliana regia, Dcsmoncus
poll/acanthus and macroacanthos, Bactris and Astocaryum, were ex-
tremely numerous in situations that were damp.

899. After pursuing our course for several hours on a greasy soil of
clay and sand in continued twilight, because the dense foliage and the
innumerable creepers, that formed the most fantastic festoons and
figures, only allowed a few sunbeams to pass, we reached the small river
Nappi, where we were able at last to quench our burning thirst. A huge
tree that had fallen across the stream served as a bridge. Several
travellers' houses showed that this place must have been frequently

THE INDIAN'S ACUTE PERCEPTIVE SENSES. 325

used as a cainp, just as happened to be now the case, by a party of
Macusis who had returned from a fishing excursion with a big catclu
the greater number of which consisted of Erythrinus wiitacniatus Spii.
Although we could have reached Nappi settlement, the terminus of our
trip, even to; day without any great effort, we nevertheless determined
to overnight it here with the strangers, who gladly shared their harvest
with us. Several bright rf ires soon blazed under the pots, and their
columns of smoke curled lightly up between the dense foliage of the
giant trees. I also had many an opportunity here of admiring the acute
perceptive sense of the Indians for every sound, for every noise. Hardly
had any note or only a rustle attracted their attention than they likewise
designated the animal, were it a bird or an insect, by which the one or
the other was produced. Many a bird that was even yet perched in
among the verdant branches, was roasting a few minutes later on a spit
over the fire.

900. With early morn we were up and away through the dense
forest. The wild screeching of the parrots, in conjunction with a note,
sounding at regular intervals, which I can only compare with the lowing
of a calf, greeted the early dawn : I could not believe that this note pro-
ceeded from a bird until I confirmed it myself with my own eyes. It was
the Capuchin bird (Coracina calva Tern.) remarkable enough in appear-
ance already. The bald head which makes it look exactly like a philoso-
pher engaged in the deepest speculation, is assumed only with advancing
years: in the younger birds it is covered with a whitish down. I have
never met the creature so plentifully as in the Canuku Range. The lovely
chime of the bell-bird also reached me from different directions through
the silent forest, but I did not see the songster on this occasion either.

901. After several hours' further advance through the dark forest,
during which I continually had to admire the Indians who, in spite of
their heavy load, nevertheless hurried at such a pace that Tiedge and I
could hardly keep up with them along the path wTiich was too narrow
to permit of my even turning out the tips of my toes, the green walls
finally thinned and we stood once more on the banks of the little river
Nappi, in which several women and children were just then taking
their morning bath. Nappi village spread itself out before us on the
opposite shore. As the bathers noticed us Europeans they fled in great
commotion and excitement to the settlement, where they started all the
residents in an uproar with the cry of "Paranaghieri." The village
comprised seven houses, out of the doors of which the anxious mothers
and children stealthily peeped, while the men, coming towards us, wel-
comed me by passing the flat of the hand from side to side h; front of my
face and then shaking hands. Among the men I found several who had
been engaged in Pirara with the transport of the baggage and I had not
yet been five minutes in the village when a pretty girl greeted me with a
drinking cup full of nice ( !) paiwari: she was: so nervous and confused,
however, that at first she remained standing quite a while some distance
off, until emphatically told to proceed by her mother's threatening voice
audible from the house. As the poor thing drew near she was so over-
come with fear and trembling that to my great joy she spilt the largest

326 A SCENE or CONFUSION AND TERROR.

portion of the drink : nij previous disgust had nevertheless so far vanished
that I was able to swallow the liquid without any serious remonstrance
on the part of my stomach. Others on the other hand brought the pepper-
pot and freshly-baked bread, which was laid on plates (Sumpa) plaited
with Calathea; if special characters are interwoven in these plates they,
are called .Woro. As I wanted to make Nappi my headquarters for
the mountain trips, I fixed myself up as comfortable as possible in the
Strangers' House : the residents, who in the meanwhile had gleaned from
my companions that I intended staying with them for some time, lent me
a helping hand.

902. Although we must have reached fairly close to the base of the
Range, the high virgin forest nevertheless obscured its view. The settle*
ment numbered a population of 60 souls. Instead of a mud wall as I had
hitherto noticed in the Macusi houses, the dome-shaped roof rested
upon a scaffolding interwoven with palm-leaves, for the savannah
was quite wanting here in the former material,

903. The next morning was to present a recurrence of one of those
scenes of confusion and terror, to which also on this occasion I could
not remain wholly indifferent. At least half the population were just
then standing inquisitively around and looking longingly and admir-
ingly at the things and articles of trade that I had brought with me,
when suddenly a loud shriek ringing through the forest set all the
residents in the most obvious terror. It was thereupon soon repeated
a few times until I was finally unable to distinguish the word "Caraiba"
distinctly. At the first moment the inhabitants were turned into down-
right lifeless statues mechanically repeating the dreaded word
''Caraiba" like echoes of these shrill cries : but half a minute did not
elapse before the most terrible uproar followed upon the silence. Yelling
wildly the women seized their children and disappeared in the neigh-
bouring forest while the men rushed into the huts, and soon emerging
with bows, arrows, fighting-clubs, weapons and knives, both the latter of
which they had recently obtained from us in Pirara, hurried to the spot
whence tne warning call proceeded. Nevertheless before getting there
they were stopped by the oncoming rush of a young Macusi, around whom
they formed a circle in a twinkling, while he, out of breath and making
some lively gestures, said a few words to them and pointer! with both"
hands to the forest. As far as I was concerned, the only word intelligible
was "Caraiba," which some of the belated female refugees still continued
to shout at me. I am convinced that just at this moment of uncertainty
I may not have posed exactly as the model of a hero to an uninterested
observer, for I could not but believe that it was a body of Brazilians who
were marching to Pirara to wrest it again from the English, on which
account I already saw in my mind's eye all my "trade" as well as my
valuable self in the hands of the advancing enemy forces. Similar fears
must also have seized Tiedge : his look of despair at least prompted
such thoughts. The first thing we both did was to carry the guns and
other valuable articles into the bush, whereupon I hurried with a double-
barrelled gun after the men who had already made their way into the
thicket. Yet before I had got there, a loud noise drew my attention aside
to whpre several Macusis with three Brazilians in their midst were to

A TAME WATER-HAAS. 327

be seen upon the open flat. They were vaqueiros and, in fact, members
of Captain Leal's party who, immediately recognising me, hurried up and
told me they were deserters on their way to Pirara. My poor knowledge
of the Portuguese language made our mutual intelligibility none too
easy, and it required some considerable time before I could satisfy the
curiosity of the Indians, who on the tip top of expectation, were sur-
rounding me. Quiet in the camp was soon restored, but the word
"Caraiba" remained current all day. After the three refugees had re-
freshed themselves, they set out for Pirara, where they could be sure
of receiving an open welcome, being very much required there for catch
ing wild cattle: hitherto these had had to be hunted, with the result that
not only was a portion of the meat always left behind in the savannah,
but if the animal had been killed at any distance away that which was
brought home arrived in the pot with a high flavour.

904. Among the many domesticated animals met with at the settle-
ment I was specially interested in a full-grown water-haas. The
creature was so tame that it regularly stuck to the heels of the women.
'Although the river Nappi flowed past the houses not fifty paces away,
it never visited its favourite element otherwise than in company with
the women when they went to draw water, and even then only to drink :
with the loss of its liberty, its natural instinct for water seemed to have
been lost. I also saw for the first time a hokko hen (Cray tomcntosa,
Spix.) that is only met with on the savannahs, particularly in the oases
and forested edges of the eavannah streams. Among tame birds it is said
that the Psophia crepitans and still more rarely the hokko hens are the
only ones to breed. I have never met with small groups of Crax tomcn-
torn in a natural state, but always only two to three together at a time:
the peculiar gurring and purring bass note that slowly issues from the
uncommonly long and repeatedly tortuous wind-pipe' is only rarely to
be heard in the tamed specimens; their flat nests are built out of brush-
wood in the angles of the branches, not high from the ground : the two
eggs are white and somewhat larger than those of our ordinary fowls.

905. Our first hunting expedition was richly rewarded Tioranse T no'ti
only brought home with me a magnificent cleer, tint also the brilliant
Fire "bird (Amprfh carnifen Linn.). Unfortunatclv T was unable to (ret;
Tiedge to skin either the birds or rnammnls, find if T did not want to lot
my Eooty spoil T had alwavs to call Ni<rht to mv assistance. I anxiouslv
Toolrec! forward to the tielping Kami of Stockl'e, w^io had promise! to
follow me as soon as the 'fever allowed of his fining so.

906. I had soon made friends with the little boys and girls, and not
a day passed on which they did not bring me some insect or other, in most
cases, of course, in such a state that it was unable to be made use of, but
I had to take the good children's will for the deed. Judging from these
finds the environs of :Nappi would seem to be especially rich in insects,
but particularly in Coleoptcra, Lepidoptera and Diptera-. I paid a pin
for every beetle I wanted. During the day I was generally present in^the
Village along with Tiedge. After the customary morning bath in the neigh"
bouring river the man went off with bow and arrow, the long blow-gun or
foe fishing gear to hunt and fish, while the wife betook herself to the

328 INDIFFERENCE & APATHY TO THE SICK.

provision field with her children and the whole of her tame live-stock,
either as advance or rear guard. The housemaster usually leads the
procession until the parting of the ways in the forest later on. The village
so full of life but a short while ago, soon looks as if it were abandoned ;
only here and there one occasionally sees an inquisitive old granny at the
door of a house, or a couple of small boys rolling and romping around
in the dust. Burdened like the mother, the little girls have to follow her
to her work, to be at hand in all her female duties, and help her main-
tain in the field the fight against the forest, that is ever striving to
recover its lost territory again. As night draws nigh one sees the residents
hastening home from all directions, the men with their trophies of the
chase, the women with loads of manihot, bananas and -sugar-cane, and
the deserted settlement soon resumes its former scene of the busiest
activity.

907. On the fourth day of my stayf about evening time, the shouting
and screaming of several boys who had just bathed and now came rushing
into the village with the words "Paranaghieri, Paranaghieri '" indicated
the advent of the longed-for Stopkle. From what he told us the military
were just on the point of leaving the village to erect the Fort that has been
previously noted. On the following morning Tiedge was to return to
Pirara with the Indians who had brought my servant here.

908. I had already found on my arrival a sick woman whose condition
was daily getting worse. The indifference and apathy with which the
people treated the helpless creature, whom they left lying unnoticed in
the house during the busy part of the day, made an unpleasant impression
on me. I was yet lying in my hammock one morning after Stockle's arrival,
and he was also resting after his exertions of the day before, while Tiedge
had already gone to bathe at the riverside before setting out on his
return journey, when a noisy shriek and uproar as well as a gunshot in
the sick woman's house at once made me wide enough awake. Startled, I
raised myself and found Stockle already in the same position with a
disturbed and anxious countenance and looking in the direction whence
the sound proceeded. A second shot was now heard and the screaming
still further increased. Out at once I jumped to the ground to satisfy
myself as to the cause of the unusual row, when I just happened to catch
sight of Tiedge's head : he had taken French leave behind a tree, probably
to protect himself from the death-dealing bullets. A third shot then rang
out and women and children came rushing out of all the houses wailing
any crying in a terrible fashion. No bridle could now curb my curiosity. I
quickly rushed to the house of uproar and was about to enter when
I felt myself held back by Stockle, who implored me by heaven and earth
to desist doing so, because only murder and death could be rampant
ihere. I certainly did not discover murder, but only the wan hand of
Death, for the poor sick woman had just died. Every minute the space
was being gradually filled by weeping and wailing women who, holding
their likewise squalling children by the hand, surrounded the hammock
wherein the corpse lay, shook the bed of death, wrung their hands,
gave vent to cries enough to pierce one's very marrow-bones, and at the
same time expressed such deep suffering and such unfeigned sorrow as

MACE si BURIAL CEREMONIES. 329

to arouse my deepest sympathy. Had it not been that the wish to attend
the further events of the funeral ceremony were too forcibly awakened
in me, the sounds of lamentation and affecting signs of sorrow would
have driven me from the house of death. After the neighbours had given
their grief full scope for a while, they started interpolating certain
sorrowing refrains in between all this lively expression of their feelings:
the one mourned that she had lost her best friend, another glorified the
fine cotton thread that the deceased used to spin, the beautiful pottery
that she was wont to make, and yet others related all the good qualities
that she was possessed of, while each separate eulogy closed with the
shudderingly expressed words "Asamanda, Asamamla (dead, dead)!"
The men as well as the widower squatted on the ground, in the mean-
time without saying a word or moving a muscle : only the deep breathing
betrayed they were alive.

909. The son rose out of the silent circle and prepared to dig the
grave within the house. Up to the present moment uiy ear had not heard
the highest pitch of an Indian death-song by a very long way because
hitherto the lamentation, as compared with what was to follow, was
like what the zephyr is to the raging storm. The female and juvenile
occupants of the village still remaining now gathered inside the building
and each new-comer exerted her utmost with the most vigorous support
to reinforce the howling, for I can only thus describe the uproar. After
the son had dug the trough like grave some three or four feet deep, the
relatives of the family, accompanied by the wailing chorus of the women,
commenced emptying the house and putting- outside all and everything
that happened to be there, were it household goods, hunting or fishing
implements. As soon as the last article had passed the door, in came the
Piai who, by howling and yelling the whole night before, had tried to
mollify the Evil Spirit without, however, succeeding in rescuing the
chosen sacrifice from its toils. With an earnest and solemn countenance,
he took up his position at the head of the corpse, bent down towards her
left ear, and after shouting several words into it at short intervals, again
withdrew. The relatives then loosened the hammock from off the beam,
bore the body in it to the grave, which in the meantime had been lined
with palm fronds, lowered it into the ground and then drew the hammock
away from underneath. fThe expression of grief now indeed bordered
closely upon the animalesque, and the sympathy I had hitherto felt com-
menced to disappear : a real madly-shrieking fury seemed to have seized
the whole crowd, so that under the circumstances I • thought I
had to fear the worst. The whole of the relatives next circled round the
grave, and as each reached the spot from whence he had started, he made
a spring over it ; even the barely twelve- weeks-old orphan was. taken up
in arms and made to jump it.

910. Up to this time the sorrowing widower had been squatting silent,
apathetic and unnoticed, in the house, the whole ceremony seeming to
have passed off without making any impression on him. He now suddenly
aroused himself, seized a calabash which, filled with red pigment, stood at
his side, stepped up to the still open grave and after strewing its contents
over the corpse smashed it above her in such a way that all the chips fell

330 THE PART PLAYED BE THE PIAI.

in, while the portion that he had seized in his hand and still retained, he
slung out of the door. During this ceremony the relatives hud retired
to a distance, to return now with all sorts of trifles, e.g., little bits of bone,
fruit, bread, which they threw upon the corpse, whereupon the latter
itself was overlaid with small split steins of the Euterpq olwacea, which
were most carefully fitted one into the other. This being completed, the
Piai again stepped forward with a bundle of hair in his haiul, bent down
into the grave, removed from the corpse's head so many of the laths as
would allow of the whole face being seen, spat on it, stuffed tlie hair into
the ears and mouth, continuing to spit all the while, and, after addressing
it in an abrupt and harsh tone, finally withdrew. The laths were now
again carefully replaced and covered with palm-fronds. In the mean-
while several of the women wailing all the way, betook themselves to the
neighbouring stream where they drew Water which, on their return, they
handed to the deceased's widower and sister, who, pouring it over the soil
that had been removed, mixed it to the accompaniment of loud expressions
of grief : they heaped it over the palm-fronds to the depth of about a foot,
so as to prevent the ants disturbing the repose of the dead. The widower
then laid several of the deceased's belongings on the top of this compact
mass and filled in the grave completely. My ears were now at least freed
from the terrible uproar, for the mourners all of a sudden stopped their
howling and left the house, which the occupants cleared with the utmost
care, at the same time bringing back the things that had been thrown out-
side. But before this, they had carefully searched for Hie rest of the
deceased's propertv which now, together with her hammock, were burnt
outside the building: the widower next scattered the resulting ashes
around the house, and lighted on top of the grave a fire which he kept
up for some hours, but the wood remaining unburnt, as well as the
spent ashes, were left lying on the mound. The burial ceremony ended
with that — only the deceased's sister, who occupied the same house con-
tinued to give expression to her grief and croon her lament for another
'three weeks, both by day, especially on her return from the provision
field, as also at midnight, fortunately, however, by herself alone.
During the period of mourning she had to discard her strings of beads
as well as every other ornament. This mourning, if not to the same
fle^ree, is sacredly observed by all the tribes, Ilie Macusis, as T have
just mentioned, lay aside all decoration, paint themselves plentifully
with arnatto, and cut off their long hair; the cheerful expression doeS
not return to the now4 solemn countenance until if has grown apain to a
fixed length". 1Th"e! nearest relatives on the' following morning fiafi
painted themselves' from top To toe witti arnatto, tfie relating of the
Second degree only ttie feet, Tegs and arms, those still more "distant only
the hands and feet. The house in which" ttie "deceased lies, if not aban-
doned nv the occupants immediately after the interment, is certain to
"He 'deserted soon after.

911. In spite of the Piai's methods hot having proved successful, I
saw that his useless trouble had been richly recompensed by the widower
with such articles as he had recently earned at Pirara only by bitter
in transporting our luggage, The word Piai is one of those few

THE PIAI'S PROGRESS. 331

that are in use throughout almost the whole of Guiana, a circumstance
which, judging by analogy from several other practices, has led me to
the opinion that this office did not have an independent origin in every
tribe, but has arisen in some particular one, whence in the course of
time, it has been gradually adopted by the others: this view becomes
all the more probable from the fact that, generally speaking, the simple
religious convictions of each, so far as their main essentials are concerned,
entirely correspond. Although during my stay in the interior I had
many and many an opportunity of associating with those learned folk,
I never discovered in any one of them a higher stage of culture or a
deeper medical knowledge than I did in the lay fraternity. Their whole
business lies in making noisy and at the same time crude exorcisms,
accompanied by spitting, sucking, squeezing and smoking of the sick
areas, in the utterance of unintelligible expressions, in the skill with
which, through the use of narcotics, they can transform themselves into
a condition of wild ecstacy, and particularly in the art of ventriloquism.
Though they also possess some botanical knowledge, inasmuch as they
call all plants by particular names and recognise their main properties,
it nevertheless seems that this knowledge has not in any \vay been ad-
vanced with the passing of the years, but has only been handed down as
an unchanged heirloom from father to son. If the Piai has no son of his
own, he picks upon the craftiest from amongst the village boys and takes
him to the most remote recesses of the forest, where he gradually makes
him acquainted with the technique of his future career, until, after a few
years' time, the latter has imbibed the whole course of instruction. He
who up to the present has disappeared from among his people, returns
now as a learned physician, etc., in the midst of his tribal relatives, but
more like a skeleton than a human being. In the presence of others a
brew of tobacco leaves is his drink; a bit of cassava bread his nourish-
ment. During his apprenticeship he is not allowed to come into any
contact with Europeans, as he would thereby lose his influence over the
spirit world for evermore. When the apprenticeship is completed, his
teacher receives most valuable presents from the parents and relatives
as he hands the novice the mystic rattle (maracca of the Macusis, etc.) The
outward sign indicates the office : the sombre and gloomy look, the lone-
some solitary life and the ascetic austerity alone betray the Piais. They
preside in the gatherings as welli as at the dances, and with their maracca
act as masters of the ceremonies. The whole village is subservient to
their will absolutely. iTheir influence appears to be especially marked
over the female sex, it being generally noticeable that their wives are
always the most beautiful in the whole village, and yet their power is not
less marked over the others less favoured.

912. However impenetrable the halo with which the Piais know how
to surround themselves amongst their tribal relatives, they nevertheless
fight shy of the Europeans, but more especially of the Missionary, because
their evil inner consciousness seems indeed not without reason to cry out
"These people will see through you." If one asks in a village for the Piai,
the answer always received is that there is none present : chance alone
will make the stranger acquainted with the dreaded personality,

332 PROGRESSIVE ADVANCE OF TECHNIQUE.

913. My "trade" proved so tempting to the inhabitants of Nappi and
the surrounding villages, that I was able to send along with Tiedge to
Pirara twelve Indians loaded up with cassava bread, yams, potatoes and
huge pine-apples. The first of these articles was particularly required for
our journey to the sources of the Takutu, because it keeps in a palatable
condition for years and is never attacked by worms or insects : a pheno-
menon that is all the more extraordinary because, except for cassava
bread, I have learnt of really no other destructible object whatever that
is spared by them. The women, likewise here, generally asked only for
beads, while the men who wanted axes, knives, po\vder, files -and such-
like, offered me their war implements, hunting kits, and feather orna-
ments, amongst which the stately feather cloaks (Warara-rancui) stood
conspicuous, with the result that my house soon resembled a rich ethno-
logical museum.

914. I have already noted that the technique always became more
and more advanced in proportion as we penetrated further into the
interior.* More overwhelwing demonstrations of this fact were to be
found here. Considering the absence of every tool for minimising labour,
and that in the manufacture of their weapons, etc., they had been hitherto
obliged to have recourse, generally speaking, to stone or bone knives,
their arms and implements were nevertheless fabricated with a neatness
and taste that would have put a European handicraftsman to shame.
The weapons were generally made from the hard central part of the
trunk of the giant Lccythis or Brosimum. But if one considers the
trouble already entailed not only in the felling of such a tree by people
amongst whom axes are still a rarity, but also in the working up of the
heart-wood : if one bears in mind the cutting of it without saws and then
its transformation into a war-club or a bow, one's admiration for the
patience of these people is increased all the more. I frequently saw sub-
sequently how they took a piece of old iron or an old cutlass, broke
notches in it and used it as a saw, a whole day being then required to
cut but an inch deep into the timber, which was as hard a« iron. To be
sure, the Indian only works when he feels inclined, and spends perhaps
several months and longer in the manufacture of a bow or of a club:
time has no value for him, and he gladly gives the labour of many a toil-
some hour for a knife or for a file. Their weapons consist of bows and
clubs ('Taikeh). Each tribe has its peculiar shape of club although,
according to its special requirements, the one tribe adopts the shape of
{another'. Tims I found among the Macusis a form of war club that
otherwise is peculiar to the Maiongkongs only. Starting at the lower
extremity in a long sharp point, the club gradually broadens out more
and more until it ends above in a blunt projection. 'The handle is more
towards the middle. The sharp point is said to be for the purpose, when
the enemy is downed, of sticking it into his ear and then driving it into
his brain. For battle itself they take only seven poisoned arrows with
them : when these have been shot the combatants engage in hand-to-hand
fighting and the clubbing commences. To make the blow of a club more
effective they often also smooth a piece of hard sandstone into the shape

* See Section 8Q2 ani Subjoined Note.(E.<i)

PATIENCE IN MANUFACTURING WEAPONS. 333

of a celt, and fix this into the broad side of the club. These club-celts
possess an extraordinary, I might almost say absolute, correspondence
with the old German fighting celts, which we now so often find in pre-
historic graves (Hunengrabern). The tips of the arrows consist either
of the spine of a sting-ray, of fish-bone, bone, or a spear*- shaped piece
of bambu to which they ascribe poisonous 'qualities. With this latter
they chiefly kill tapir and bush-hog. Amongst the weapons that proved
of the greatest interest to me was the blow-gun, a hunting implement
that I had never before met with in such numbers amongst any tribe or
in any settlement as here, for even every little boy possessed a miniature
one. The complete hunting outfit consists of the generally 12 to 14 foot
long blow-gun (Cura of the Macusis, Ihrua of the Paravilhanos), the
quiver (Muyeh), arrows (Cungwa), the lower jaw of the voracious
pirate-fish (Pygoccntrus niger), the seed-covering ("silk-cotton") of the
Bortibax globosum (Assareh), and the fibres of Bromelia Karatas. But
of the whole apparatus, the Macusis finish only the latter parts : they
obtain the blow-gun itself in barter from the Arecunas, Maiongkongs,
and Guinaus. The dexterity with which they handle it is veally worthy
of admiration for they can accurately and forcibly drive the arrow, over
12 inches in length, along a horizontal direction into an object more than
50 feet away. Small mammals and birds are the main quarry for this
hunting weapon, although bigger game are now and again killed with it,
the result, however, certainly depending in such cases only upon the
strength of the poison. It is a peculiar phenomenon that the effects of
the poison are rendered visible considerably quicker in apes than in other
animals of corresponding size; The plant ( ' Arundinaria, Sdiomburgkii
Benth>, Curata of the Macusis) which supplies the main ingredient of
the blow-gun, grows only in the country of the Guinaus ar.d Maiong-
kongs, on the* upper Parima, and probably in the environs of the sources
of the Orinoco, where my brother first discovered it. The stalk rises
quite cylindrically from the rhizome without any nodes often to a height
of 15 feet, when the first little branches are given off, and the nodes con-
tinue at regular intervals of from 15 to IS inches up to a height of 40 to
50 feet. The adult cane is usually 14 inches in circumference at its base,
has a brilliant green colour, is smooth, and contains a somewhat more
1 lian Jin. diam. cylindrical cavity. The Indian invariably chooses only the
young stalk for the manufacture of his weapon. Having cut such an
one to the required length, lie holds it above a moderate fire, over which
he rolls it along its own axis, whereby shrinking is prevented, until lie
believes that the greater part of the moisture is evaporated, when he
hangs it up in the sun until such time as the yellow colouring shows
that all the remainder is removed. But as such a weapon would be so
easily exposed to damage on their hunting excursions, the Indians manu-
facture a sort of sheath out of the slender and thin stem of a palm,
belonging to the family Arecincatt, into which the cane is driven and
fastened : for this purpose the stem, as straight as a thread, is placed for
several days in water and the decomposed pith then pushed out with a
rod. They called the sheath Curura-curapon#. A' second kind of blow-
gun, which nevertheless is much heavier, is found amongst the Indian

How THE BLOW- GUN Is MADE.

tribes of the Rio Negro and Amazon streams : it only consists of the
slender stem of a palm which is split into two halves, out of which the
soft inner cellular tissue is carefully scraped, the cavities smoothed as
neatly as possible, and the two halves then tied up again and cemented
with bast and resin.* While the Indian of the Rio Negro attaches to this
a mouthpiece of another timber, the Macusi binds the extremity that is
put to the mouth, with a thin thread, and attaches to the distal opening
a sort of protective cover made from half the stone-fruit of the Astro-
caryum Tucuma, so that if it strikes the ground it cannot get stuffed up
with earth. The little arrows for shooting with the weapon are about
a foot long and manufactured from the midrib of the Ma&Mliana rcyia.
Their needle-like tip is streaked for an inch long with poison which must
be dried hard in the sun. The plaited hunting 'quiver, which on the out-
side is thickly covered with resin (Mani) and wax (Caraman) to keep off
the wet and rain, is supplied with a tightly-closing cover made of maipuri
skin ; it generally contains 4 to 500 of such arrows that are threaded on
two strings and then rolled tightly around a somewhat longer pencil, at
the end of which is fastened a ring that exactly fits the crvity of the
holder, so that their tips are protected from knocking n gainst the
bottom of the article. From outside the quiver there hangs a small
bundle of Bromclia, Karatas fibre used for fixing in position the Bom-
bax globosum "silk-cotton" which is wound upon the base of the arrow:
this cotton serves to block the aperture of the gun, and being so light
exercises a minimum effect upon the trajectory. Likewise tied to the
quiver is a miniature basket containing Eonibax seed;-huskf:, as is also
the lower jaw of a pirai. The sharp teeth on the latter are used for
putting a point on the little arrows when necessary, and for nicking
them to about a third of their thickness immediately belaw the poison,
so that on striking the game, especially with monkeys, which pull out
the little weapon directly they feel pricked, the innocent portion breaks
off and the poisoned" end remains in place. The shape of the above
mentioned miniature baskets are at the same time indicative: the dif-
ferent Indian tribes can be recognised from them. Just as we, when
hunting, take only as much ammunition as we believe will be required,
so does the Macusi smear with poison only so many arrows as he thinks
may be necessary.

915. In his right hand, the blow-gun, and on a short loop slung over
his left shoulder the quiver and its appurtenances, which lie can press
against his chest with his arm, the hunter hastes to the forest and makes
his way with this awkward implement into its utmost recesses to search
for monkeys, hokko hens, yakus, trumpet birds and other creatures.
,The skill that he develops in this connection is surprising. Though the
animals be perched upon the highest densely-foliaged trees, they do not
by any means find themselves out of reach of the blow-gun, the arrow of
which can be driven to a height of over a hundred feet. Lightly and

* Mention is made of a third kind in Roth's " Arts, Crafts and Customs of the Guiana
Indians" [in the Press]. (Ed.)

Bow AND POISONED ABROWS. 335

without a sound, so that the dead leaves under his feet hardly seem to
move, and the European's ear would try in vain to catch the fall of his
footstep, the Indian glides along until he finally reaches the tree on
which he hopes to find his prey. Nothing escapes his trained and sharp-
ened senses, his ear is open to the slightest note, his eye to the almost
unrecognisable variation in the foliage colour. Should the searching and
the spying produce no results after a time, he imitates in a most striking
fashion the call of the bird he wishes to capture, and so decoys it from
tree to tree until within range, when as quick as thought the arrow is
shot out of the gun and never misses its mark. But if, in spite of all his
cunning, he should still get nothing, the residents do not see him return :
he waits for the evening, sneaks in as if with an evil conscience, fails to
exchange a word with his family, and but throws himself in his hammock,
whereas next day perhaps, laden with spoil, he will enter the village in
arrogant and noisy delight.

916. When the Indian goes to hunt larger four-footed animals, he
generally takes his bow (Urapa) and certain arrows (Urari-Epou)'
headed with a piece of hardwood, 6 inches long, which" at its free end
carries a one-inch deep square hole. The poisoned tip, that can easily be
removed, is stuck into this. These arrows are also used in battle. While
not in actual use the hunter covers his arrow with a piece of bambu to
prevent accidents or stop the poison being washed off when rain sets in. He
likewise carries at his side a hollowed-out piece of bambu-cane with cover,
in which are to be found the remaining poisoned tips, which are also cut
across at different spots up to a third of their breadth and thickness so
that, when an animal is shot, the arrow may break off by its own weight
and not be broken in pieces by the wounded animal dragging it through
the thicket in its race to death.

917. Although it had not hitherto worried me, I found on my arrival
at Nappi several of the villagers down with fever, an illness to which'
that particular woman had also apparently succumbed, and so the dis-
cordant noise of the piai accordingly remained my evening lullaby. One
of the symptoms that frequently accompanied the fever here was a
violent dysentery that mostly brought the malady to a rapidly fatal
issue. I was interested at seeing steam applied as a remedy in certain
diseases at this settlement, for which purpose one placed beneath the ham-
mock of the patient large vessels with water, into which were thrown
glowing hot quartz-stones. Besides fever and dysentery there is in par-
ticular another disease indigenous to the occupants of the plains who call
it Viccis. It generally begins with slight fever that usually remains quite
unnoticeable at first, but pains in the knees, heaviness of the limbs, and a
constant inclination to sleep, are soon associated with it. Unless very
prompt measures are applied by the commencement of this stage, a speedy
death is the infallible result of the omission: the patient begins to be
delirious — but in a strange way, this commonly assumes only a cheerful
aspect — and the muscular activity of his digestive organs becomes so
relaxed that the motions are passed involuntarily. 'Astringent decoctions

S36 ASCENT cr THE CURASSAWAKA.

and lime-juice are the measures which, taken at the beginning, prove to
.be the best*

918. After these more general remarks let me turn once more to my par-
ticular surroundings. At Nappi I had hit upon an especially favourable
field for collecting, and was soon in possession of a considerable number of
birds, but the Rupicola aurantia and the Chasmat'hynchus carunculatus
were yet always wanting: I still had to search for the former in its
haunts in the very mountain itself, but this I almost missed doing,
because none of the villagers of Nappi wanted to escort me or account of
its being the home of the worst of the evil spirits. My promises finally
prevailed upon five of them to accompany me on this hazardous enter-
prise: I got away with them one morning as quickly as possible. The
unusually large amount of dew that had fallen during the night gave me
an opportunity of learning its signification on the part of tte Macusis:
the latter call it Star-spittle ( Siriko-itaku ) , while the Caribs designate
it as Star-urine. The thick virgin forest in the immediate environs of
Nappi consisted for the most part of resin-producing trees, amongst
which I will only mention the Humirium floribundum Mart., the Amyris
a-nibrosiaca, Linn., and Hymenaea Courbaril Linn. The Hymenaea looks
uncommonly like our elm. Another extremely interesting tree, on
account of its exquisite timber, Piratinera guianensis Aubl. (Brosimum
Aiibleti Poep. Endl.), the local letter-wood. I had got acquainted with
already 011 the previous trips. The heart of this tree belongs indisputably
to the most excellent cabinet woods, not only on account of its solidity,
fineness, and power of taking a polish, but particularly also on account
of its dark red colour and the deep black spots. It is a pity that the heart,
even in a fully grown tree, has but a diameter of from five to seven
inches. The Sideroxylon inerme, likewise indigenous here, offers a similar
timber.

919. Only owing to the beds of certain torrents being devoid of water
was it possible for us in several places to make headway in the vegetation
that was so bound up and entangld with thick growths of bush-rope.
Certain trees were overrun Avith a complete network, whilst others
seemed covered with mosses, lichens, ferns and orchids, and several
species of Riynonlac and Passiflorac] entwined themselves up them like
lovely branches of ivy. Though I now and again heard the enchanting
note of the Cliasmarliyncluis, my eyes nevertheless in vain si light for it
in this dense foliage.

920. After continuing on our way for a time with the help of these;
by-paths, and shooting several hokko hens and a beautiful species of
Picus, the pecking of Avhich continually resounded through the forest,
the latter itself became clearer. We found ourselves apparently in an
abandoned provision field now run wild, upon which a ruined house still
remained. Its former owner, Pureka, was one of the men who accom-
panied me. Upon this neglected piece of ground, the Musa sapientium

* The symptom of " constant inclination to sleep " is puzzling. Of course sleeping
sickness would not run so acute a course, nor would one expect violent dysentery, etc.
Probably dullness leading to coma is meant, in which case the reference might 'be to
sub-tertian Malaria, with gastro-intestinal or cerebral symptoms, or perhaps to Acute
Dysentery. (F.G.E.)

MACUSI HOUSES IN THE VIRGIN FOREST.

THE BELL-BIRD. 33?

had reached a height of 10 feet, aud its trunk a diameter of 14 inches.
The average height of the sugar-cane amounted to between 1 j» and 18 feet.
In this respect the richness of the soil here surpassed anything 1 had
ever seen before : the latter consisted of a mixture of humus, loam and
sand. The occurrence of a painful death had induced the former
proprietor to nbandon his house and the rich fields surrounding it. The
area that was not yet quite overgrown again at least afforded me some
sort of an outlook : we found ourselves at the base of the Range which,
after making a very hurtful passage for ourselves througK the prickly
ttolancae and Mimosae, we commenced to ascend: this, however, could
only be accomplished by the continual help of the cutlass. The higher we
climbed the more abundant became the Desmoncus polyacanthus and
macroacantlws palms that proved so dangerous to my clothes and body:
their merciless hooks often forced me to make a stop, when certainly
many a piece of cloth, and many a bit of skin remained behind. The
Acrocomia sclerocarpa Mart, and Iriartea ventricosa Mart, also
presented obstacles just as frequent. Four years previously two of my
companions had led Mr. Youd to the top, and we had hardly clambered
many hundred feet before they drew my attention to the twigs that had
been broken down and lopped with a knife on that very occasion,
indications that would certainly have escaped notice by my untrained
and bleary eyes. Twigs were now again freshly cracked at every ten to
twelve paces. The immense granite boulders, which appeared partly as a
rocky massif (Massengebirge) and partly as separate units heaped one
on top of the other, were soon to be associated with the obstacles offered
by the vegetation.

921. We might have been climbing like this for about an hour when
my strength began to fail: the enchanting chime of the Chasmar-
hynclnts, the object of my search was heard a short distance off and the
sharp eyes of the Indians soon discovered the fairy songster on the top
of an old dead mora. After much trouble on account of the dazzling
sunshine, I also succeeded in distinguishing the white bird. I signified
my companions to shoot all together so that the bird might be hit by
perhaps one of the shots : a negative shake of the head was the
reply, for they recognised only too well that such an attempt from our
present standpoint >would be useless, and nothing is more
detestable to an Indian than to shoot at random. Nevertheless,
deficient as I was, not only in Indian common sense but also in delibera-
tion, I attempted the shot : the satirical laughter of ray friends was the
only result when they saw the bird fly away. Annoyed, I was about to
proceed farther when they pointed to me to remain where I was, because
the bird would soon return to its grand Bona-Vista. I hurriedly sought
a more favourable spot, and had hardly settled in it than the notes were
a<*ain heard. On this occasion the satirical laughter was on my side, for
the shot hit and the bird came down, but the white plumage was,
unfortunately, rather besmirched with blood. The bird is somewhat
larger than a thrush : at the root of the beak there rises a peculiar, but
at the same time hollow, black, muscular pouch (zipfcl) that is in direct
communication with the palate, and is decked with a few small white

338 THE COCK-OF-THE-KOCK.

feathers. According to its own sweet will, the bird can fill this pouch
.with air from the palate, whereupon it rises like a horn: just as
.voluntarily it can draw the air out again, when the bag hangs over the
side of the beak, like the so-called nose of the turkey, or else it can retract
it altogether, when it protrudes hardly more than a quarter of an inch.
It is in this retracted condition that the bird usually carries its pouch,
but when it wants to ring out its metallic notes it blows it up, with the
result that the tip of the bag becomes twisted around its own base : if it
strikes but a single note, the bag is immediately straightened up, to
collapse directly it is over, and erect itself again with the next cry.* In
the colour of the plumage the female differs completely from the male,
because the former is greyish green. £The males get their snow-white
plumage only in their third year: I was subsequently fortunate enough
to include in my collections the most varied stages of transition. It is
remarkable that the Indians know neither the nest nor the breeding-
season of the bird. (They generally maintain that the bird does not
breed here, but only appears in the environs of Nappi at tMs season of
the year.

9±J. The higher we climbed, the rarer became the feathered occupants
of the forest: the deep silence was only interrupted by the slirill singing
of the Cicadae. We might thus have reached a height of about 1,000
feet when my companions, on coming to a small flat spot free from brush-
wood, no longer rightly knew in which direction we had to go, particu-
larly as the vault of dense foliage, above and beside us, prevented them
taking their bearings. To remove this uncertainty one of them had to
olimb one of the highest trees. We found ourselves in the neighbourhood
of Curassawaka Kock, which we reached after a short rest. The compor
sition of the rock itself, like that of those others which I had
hitherto seen continually present, consisted for the most part of granite
and gneiss with more or less mica. Upon the little platform that we were
now occupying Pitcairnia&,, Tillandsiae and Monachanthus waxed in wan-
ton fullness, while the panorama that spread out before me from this
small plot of ground will always remain in my memory. Far below us
the smoke clouds curling up through the thick masses of foliage betrayed
the situation of the friendly village of Nappi, and my eyes swept without
hindrance over the thick virgin forest, the innumerable savannah oases,
and the soothing rolling downs as far as the horizon where they became
blurred in the distant blue. The Curassawaka, with three of its
sides fairly perpendicular, rose about half way up the range above the
surrounding timber. Somewhat to the south of our standpoint and still
a few hundred feet higher, the fantastic looking Nappi crag with its like-
wise perpendicular walls towered high beyond the crest of the range.
At this elevation my Indians found a large land tortoise (Testudo
tabulata Walb) . How much time must this creature have taken to reach
such a height?

923. After surveying the glorious prospect with rapturous gaze, we
continued our journey which now led down a steep slope. The vegetation

* Tn Tirnehri NA vi. p. 164 Quelch says that the snirai tube or caruncle does "not become
inflated with air and is never Carried in the erect position. (Ed.)

PROVIDES AN EMPEROR'S FEATHER-CLOAK. 339

assumed another character: luxuriant ferns and thick clusters
of Gesneriac covered the huge rocky boulders and increased the difficul-
ties of descent still more, until we got to a deep ravine where we heard
the pleasant splashing of a small torrent, in the cooling waters of which
we refreshed ourselves to the full ; but my eyes sought the Rupicola in
vain. When we had again climbed, under inexpressible difficulties, an
uncommonly steep hill covered with innumerable granite boulders, we at
last came upon a small spot where the ground was fairly level and only
slightly covered with bush, I sat down here to rest while the Indians
distributed themselves in the brushwood, when a peculiar cry that I
put down to a quadruped, because it quite resembled the voice of a young
cat, suddenly attracted my attention. The notes continued getting
bearer and nearer at short intervals, the Indians deceptively imitating
them the while, and all of a sudden one of the longed-for birds unex-
pectedly perched on the bush in front of me: it was soon joined in a
snipe-like flight by several others, which disappeared agaSn just as
quickly after searching the underwood in vain for the decoy. The hunter
must utilise this short interval in which to shoot, because it is really the
only moment when one might be .successful. We had the luck to kill
seven. The dirty grey plumage of the female contrasts strikingly with
the brilliant orange colour of the male, which latter, however, is only
attained in the third year. It is peculiar that the Rupicola carefully
avoids the company of all other birds, and,, accordingly, is only met in
the most lonesome and wildest clumps of crag. The bird builds
its nest in the deep fissures of the rocks to which it is stuck
after the style of our swallows' nests and at the same
time protected as much as possible from the influence of the weather.
They use a fairly sticky resin for binding and fastening the materials to
the rocks and for the vegetable threads and root fibres of which it con-
sists. Like several other birds the Rupicola seems to use its nest when
once built, every year again, and only to raise it at each breeding season
by means of a new layer of rootlets and some feather-down: ct all events
this is what I concluded from the different strata lying on*1 above the
other. The outside is regularly plastered with that resinous material.
They always lay but two eggs, white and sprinkled with a few black dots,
which in colouring correspond exactly with that of species of Pipra : the
eggs themselves are somewhat larger than a pigeon's. In such clefts one
generally finds several nests beside and above one another, which furnishes
a sure sign of their mutually peaceful disposition. The main breeding
season appears to take place in the month of May, although T found quite
vouno- birds amongst the Indians in November: the latter seemed keen
on rearing them. Dom Pedro I., Emporor of Brazil, used formerly to wear
on special gala day a cloak made of variegated patches, as large as ones
palm, from the breast of the toucan: the present Emperor wears one i
of the skins of the Rupicola aurantia, now that the bird and its haunts are
better known, and the districts on the Rio Negro, especially on the River
Uaupes, have to deliver annually at Bio Janeiro a fixed number of
skins.

340 THE SOUTH AMERICAN Fox.

921 Extremely tired and exhausted, we got back at nightfall to the
settlement, upon the return to which I could not sufficiently admire the
acumen of the Indians for finding the village in amidst this awful wilder-
Hess, we having struck quite another route on the home journey. On un-
packing my treasures gathered on this excursion I missed the small
geological collection and upon enquiring for them from the Indian to
whom they had been entrusted, he maintained, however impossible it was,
that he had lost them.

925. My brother had already drawn my attention to the fact that the
Indians can be prevailed upon to carry stones only with extreme difficulty,
and generally get rid of them surreptitiously as soon as the opportunity
offers. One can overload the Indian with baggage of all descriptions and
he will quietly carry it without a murmur, over mountain a?td dale — but
to toad him up with stones, that he considers can only arise from malice :
I was subsequently forced, if I wanted to add to my geological collections,
usually to carry the specimens myself. On returning from my excursion
to the village laden with plants, etc., I was every time greeted with the
compassionate laughter of the women: but this was increased to the
utmost when they saw me pulling stones out of my pockets: in short,
from their point of view I was and remained the most extraordinary
and curious creature they had ever seen.

926. The forest streams in the neighbourhood of Nappi must harbour
a huge quantity of fish because often a single family brought home more
than a thousand specimens of Erythrinus unitaeniatus, which they had
caught in a short while by poisoning the water. It was surprising to me
that all the catch consisted of this particular fish, the favourite resort of
which must at all events be these forest rivulets whereby, during the
rainy season, it may be brought into the flooded savannahs. The settle-
ment, as soon as such a wealth of supplies wa« brought
in, offered an unusually lively picture, because now was
the time to save the huge catch as quickly as possible
from getting spoilt. All hands were occupied : yonder several
set up and bound together a boucan, while some ran to fetch dried wood
for the fire, and others again cut the bigger fish to pieces so that they
could be smoked through and through all the better, or els;> put them in
large pots over the fire. The names of the different fish were generally
taken from some sort of resemblance which some portion of it had with
another animal. JTo my great astonishment and our greater joy, I had
accidentally discovered in the virgin forest immediately bordering on
Nappi several citron and lemon trees of immense size, the branches of
which were completely bent under the weight of their fruit in all stages
of development: some industrious Indian or other must have planted
them there. .This article of luxury, which we used as vinegar, made our
fish dishes doubly tasty, and as I knew, moreover, with what delight this
glorious find would be hailed in Pirara, I had already despatched to our
friends there on the day of discovery several baskets of the fruit, for
which on my return I received everybody's thanks. From then on,
hardly a week passed but the Indians did not bring this ouch prized
article of trade to market,

OF T&4: llAMlklPANG* 341

. I possessed tie Chasmarhynchus and Rupicola: t only wanted
now the titryclvnos toxifera which, according to the statement of the
Indians, is said to grow only upon Ilamikipang, one of the rji-ky heights
on the western spur of the Cauuku Kaiige. My guides to Nappi also
wanted to accompany ine there. As this trip would occupy several days,
I left IStockle behind with uiy collections. On the evening before leaving,
one of the Indians killed a fox (Canis Asarae) which had let its pen-
chant for the number's of tame parrots and hens far exceed its discretion.
Judging from the carcase it is somewhat smaller than our fox, the brush
appearing not so hairy by far : but it differs mostly in colour. Azaia and
Prince von Neuwied have already accurately described the beast which,
accordingly, seems to be spread all over South America.

928. At sunrise we made a start. After we had crossed the little
Curassawaka stream, we turned to the south; west and intersected the
dense virgin forest that repeatedly varied in the character of its vegeta-
tion. Irregularly heaped boulder-rubble, in amongst which huge granite
needles often made their appearance, now showed me that oui route must
just at present be running along the base of the mountain system. IThe
thickly interwoven branches and twigs also refused every sunbeam a pas-
sage, which it only found where the storm had thrown down one of the
huge giants, together with all its neighbours joined to it by bush-rope,
and thus cleared away an immense space. In such situations the warming
sunbeams had called forth an immense quantity of legume-like growths
and other plants. The deeper swampy spots were generally occupied with
palms ; Oenocarpus Bacaba and 0. Bataua grew up in company with M axi-
miliana Regia and luxuriant Aroideac, amongst which I was particularly
struck by a Dracontium on account of the curious pattern of its leaf
stalk, wherein it 'quite resembled the terrible snake Trigonocephalus
atrox. As several specimens reached Berlin alive, it was shown by the
blossoms in the Botanical Gardens to be a new species whi<;h Professor,
Kunth named Dracontium dubiwn. The plant proved of still further
interest, in that I found the belief generally spread that the squashed
leaf stalk and root, when laid on the bite caused by that snake, is an
excellent antidote against its effects, a property Nature lad wanted
as it were to indicate to man in its conformation. Between the thick
foliage of the trees and large leafy fringe that had shot out from the
mould of fallen leaves in between the rubble and was 8 vanning with
innumerable flies and insects, we had thus covered a distance of several
hours, when the sudden clearing and the beaten paths that several
times crossed one another let us presume the proximity of a settlement,
which soon came into view ahead as four miserable houses situate on
a lull devoid of forest. In vain, however, did we look around for a
living being, — yes, even the husky yelping of the dogs, which otherwise
make their presence known on the slightest noise, was not to be heard :
the village must be abandoned.

929. Though the Indian is anything but intimately attached t >
the soil which he happens to occupy, and where perhaps ?je was born,
quite a trifling cause often induces him to pack up his hunting-kit as
well as all his other belongings and seek some other place of residence,

342 WE STALK AND Miss A JAGUAR.

Jmt so long as the fruits of his field are not harvested he will only shift
his quarters if the circumstances seem to him to be very urgent. It
must accordingly have been some such cogent reason that had induced
the late owners to abandon their fields when in so nourishing a condi-
tion and take their departure. As we wanted a few hours' rest, the
Indians scattered off into the extensive field surrounding the hill and
soon returned loaded up with sugar-cane, pine-apples, bananas, and
tobacco-leaves: in the meantime the large ripe fruit-stalks of the
Anacardium occidentale offered new refreshment, while the Gomphrena
globosa around the houses reminded me of my home, until the glorious
outlook onto the mountain chain recalled me to my surroundings. Like
a thick green mat the tightly entangled forest stretched away to the
summit of the mountain system, to be only occasionally interrupted by
mighty sombre granite crags and rocky walls either rounded off or
running out into pointed needles, whereby the abundant quantity of
mica, which had been heaped in certain situations into regular layers,
reflected the glowing sunbeams in thousands upon thousands of rays
Df dazzling brightness. I had already come across this phenomenon on
an intensive scale at Pirara in connection with -the Facaraima Range,
when it generally surprised us considering that this lay a six hours'
journey from the village. Might not this abundance of mica with its
reflected light prove to be one of the causes of the origin of the
myth of El Dorado, particularly since mica, as \ve learnt by experience,
is considered by the Indians to be the sought-for gold. It was an
uncommonly agreeable little spot and even my Indians expressed aston-
ishment at the owners having abandoned the pretty place: what was
most surprising to them was that they, their nearest neighbours, had
heard nothing about their removal. The cause of the residents' flight
remained a puzzle, though my hurried escape from the dangerous prox-
Unity was easily explained, because the houses were regularly filled
with fleas which may have scented the long-missed presence of living
beings. As the universally distributed tormentors are rarely able to
live longer than a few weeks in houses abandoned by their or-ciipantS;
these could only have been empty for a short while.

929 (a). After satisfying our hunger and quenching our thirst, we
trod the forest again and continued on our way, during the course of
which I was particularly appalled by the unusual silence that prevailed.
Here and there a Pipra or a lonely pigeon — these were the only
creatures that I saw. We had been travelling thus for a long time
through the voiceless and noiseless forest when a deep roar and growl
from an interlaced thicket of Desmoncus, 'Astrocaryum and Bactris
attracted our attention. The unanimously) hushed exclamation
"Teikusi" of the Indians solved my doubts: we stood in front of a
jaguar's lair. rAs our weapons were only loaded with coarse shot we
added a few slugs as quickly as possible, and divided ourselves around
the spot wnecce the sound proceeded. Slowly and deliberately, just
like the cat that we now wanted to sneak upon, we drew nearer the thicket
anft there soon shone at us from between the palms the brilliantly
spotted skin of a jaguar: nevertheless we had been noticed already; it

ACROSS THE QUAEIWAKA. 343

glared at us with its sparkling eyes and at short intervals with a hiss-
ing sound; it opened its jaws wide so that its frightful set of teeth
got to be seen. Confused and awed I gazed at the royal creature that
I here saw for the first time in a state of nature, and at the moment
when I hoped to hear the shot of the Indian who was closest to it I
noted but the light snap of the percussion cap, when with a mighty
spring the creature disappeared into the underwood. Angered and
disgusted, the Indian threw his weapon on the ground: about 20 paces
ahead of him, the jaguar had just consumed an aguti. We had loaded
the guns in the morning, but none of us had had an opportunity of firing
them off, and the damp atmosphere had long ago wetted the load. Vexed
and out of humour, we resumed our journey until we reached a savan-
nah that was occupied with Curatella trees, bushes, and whole stretches
of Cissampelos.

930. (The fantastic mountain range, the base of which we followed,
now lay before us in all its full height and broad extent. Wide belts
of rock, upon which grew Agaves, Orchids and low bushes of Clusia,
and Byrsonima, intersected the plain in its neighbourhood from East
to West. At one large house that was just being built the same thing hap-
pened as at the last village : we found the occupants likewise away. After
climbing some more of these rocky ridges a house again bobbed up ahead,
where we found a young woman lying in her hammock. spinning cotton,
with a pretty little girl sitting at her feet and picking the material : she
ran screaming into the arms of her mother who was also frightened at my
entrance. When both had finally recovered from their fright, the woman
at our earnest request brought us some fresh water wherewith we greedily
quenched our burning thirst. While I was yet admiring the neat battle-
weapons and hunting implements of the husband, he himself stepped into
the house laden with large fruit-tufts of Maxintiiliana regia and was not a
little surprised at my presence. He threw down his load, gave us a
cordial welcome and told his still anxious wife to get out some bread,
dried fish and a drink of paiwari, upon which we set to work with a will .
In the meanwhile we were being watched by our host, who without saying
another word after giving the order, had immediately thrown himself into
his hammock : however, before my companions had satisfied their hunger,
curiosity had torn down the bars of etiquette, and question upon (question
crowded itself upon his lips. As it was now fairly late we made up our
minds to spend the night here.

931. In the morning, after following the small path that at first
continued to lead over undulating ground and through foresee.^
patches where we always found the Spondias predominant, we crossed
the Quariwaka, one of the heights of the Canuku Kange, upon which was
to be seen an immense granite rock with a large number of round masses
of quartz embedded in it: these reflected the sunbeams just as strongly
as did the slabs of mica. Although the savannah would have provided
sufficient material for the mud walls, the occupants, likewise here had
varied the practice peculiar to the Macusis, and built their houses entirely
out of palm-fronds, which at all events makes their construction much

344 INDIANS' FONDNESS FOE DOGS.

lighter, but certainly not so lasting. Since leaving Pirara I had not
seen a house with mud walls.

932. After the children, yelling and screeching, had run into the
houses and the adult residents had scrutinised me With curiosity and
astonishment, the head of the settlement approached one of my men and
addressed him with a short salutation formula, which, word for word,
ran: "Sit thou down, sit thou safe and sound down." The person so
addressed replied to the greeting with a plain "Wang," i.e., "It is good."
The chieftain thereupon turned to the next of my companions and went
on greeting everyone in the same way. His two sons followed and after
them, the remaining members of the settlement, who repeated the same
formula. As for me who was excluded from it, their ceremony, lasting
as it did for almost half an hour, was dull enough. But when the
residents learnt from my men the object of my coming, an old Macusi
offered to take me next morning up the Ilainikipang, as he had rendered
the same service Tipwards of four years ago to my brother, whose
personality he remembered clown to the most minute particulars. The old
man had an especial interest for me in that he had been described as one
of the most celebrated poison-makers in the district, on which account
I could be all the more certain of his knowing the habitat of all urari
plants in the whole neighbourhood.

933. That the innumerable village dogs, momentarily silenced by
infinite trouble on the part of the women, did not belong to the dumb
variety was demonstrated clearly enough, because hardly did I let myself
be seen than the whole pack started an uproar that I could only stand
with difficulty. Except for the larger specimens, which judging from
their whole build must have been of Spanish origin, the remainder
belonged to a sharp snouted small breed with long and dark hair. While
I soon got on friendly terms with the former, I remained on a war-
footing with the latter. The dog is to the Indian what his mare is to the
Arab. In spite of the animals often resembling living skeletons, they
stand next to their children in their affections, and as the most valuable
prize of an Indian is a gun or an axe, he accordingly asks for one of these
articles whenever anybody wants to trade with him for a dog. Fowls
and dogs constitute the main items of the Indian's live-stock, but both
were first introduced by the Spaniards. I have already mentioned the
fact of the Indian eating neither fowls nor their eggs nor in general the
flesh of imported animals except under circumstances of direst necessity :
it might have come about on this account principally that the herds of
wild cattle have increased so enormously. The piai is even forbidden to
eat the flesh of introduced animals.

« 934. Shortly after my arrival a wroman brought me a, cup with a
drink that indeed resembled chocolate, but did not at all taste like it. It
was prepared from the ripe fruits of the Turu palm (Oenocarpua
Bataua and 0. Bacaba}. The ripe blue fruits are boiled for this purpose,
then thrown into a sort of mortar, where they are stirred round and
round until the flesh loosens from off the stone, whereupon the latter
are removed by me&ns of a sifter, and the slimy mass thinned with
water. The drink has such an insipid taste that it could not possibly

SUN-BIEDS ENLIVEN THE SCENERY. 345

find an advocate in any European. .While making these reflections I was
startled by the wild screams of several children who up to now had been
squatting at play in front of the entrance of the next house. Immediately
above them a large snake was just creeping out of the thickly-thatched
palm-frond roof, but an arrow, let fly by an Indian, prevented its escape
into the savannah: it was the harmless and very beautifully marked
Tiger-snake ( Coluber pantherinus Daud. ) , the only specimen that I saw
during the whole course of my journey.

935. Peeping into one of the remaining small houses that stood by
itself apart, I was led to believe that it must be the laboratory of the
poison-maker. Large pots, funnels made of husks of palm-blossom,
roundly hollowed'out logs that probably served as mortars, heaps of
dried bark and bundles of two to three foot, long pieces of wood were all
indications that my supposition was correct.

936. When the old poison maker saw my "trade," he promised to
boil the poison in my presence when we got back if I would give him some
knives in return.

937. With earliest dawn we took our departure for Ilamikipang.
After crossing the one-hour wide dense forest border stretching from the
base of the mountain into the savannah, we reached the forest itself.
This consisted for the most part of palms, Mmaceae, Zingiberaceae,
Aroideae, ferns and razor-grasses. Here also the guide showed me still
on the bushes the spots where he had lopped the twigs off with his knife
when accompanying my brother on the ascent of the mountain five years
before.

938. The rocky bed of a small torrent was our path : another would
have been impossible, because the confusion of rock and rubble was such
as if they seemed to have made a regular home for themselves. Boulder
towered on top of boulder, the one always greater and more massive than
the other : indeed, some which we ourselves had to get round in the river
bed were at least 50 feet high.

939. These rocks unexpectedly presented quite a pleasing prospect
because a number of glorious sun- birds (Eurypyya, Helias), which had
chosen them as hunting grounds for flies and other insects, were to be
seen coquettishly strutting about, while the little torrent was now
lightly rippling on its way, and now again gushing in wild delight over
the smaller or larger boulders as it hurried down to the more tranquil
plain. It almost babbled over the smooth level of the granite slab on
which we stood, then suddenly vanished and just as quickly sparkled out
again in places where it was least expected. These innumerable cascades
and miniature waterfalls, this everlasting rippling, swishing and
splashing of the falling waters, enhanced the weirdness of the scenery
to such a degree that the difficulties of the climb, every step of which
proved a source of danger owing to the slippery surface to be traversed,
remained quite unnoticed by me. But with what ease and how nimbly
did my companions surmount these obstacles! They climbed the
boulders as if their feet stepped on stairs. I often had to stop in
surprise for, on seeing my companions disappear with such rapidity
behind and between the rocks, and emerge again just as suddenly on
their tops, I could not but believe that mountain-sprites were disporting

346 MY FIRST UJJARI PLANT.

themselves in this chaos of rocky rubble : and yet they only had one hand
free, the other holding a gun. In most cases they had enjoyed half-an-
hour's rest by the time 1 caught up with them, or else they waited at
some larger boulder to hand me from the top a pole by which to drag me
up. The stone consisted partly of granite, partly of gneiss with and
without rather abundant layers of mica, and almost generally had many
garnets imbedded in it. Now and then a rubble of weathered mica-
schist put in an appearance. The vegetation that had developed upon
the steep slopes and upon the huge boulders of gneiss was as fairy-like
as the rocky chaos was fantastic. Creepers crept over the blocks like
snakes in a number of coils, or, robbed of every point of support, hung
over the deep ravine of the river-bed. On the isolated projecting
pinnacles, wherever a little earth had collected, ferns, Myrtacefre and
Clusiae and various orchids as Pleurothallis, Brassavola and Tillandsia
.were to be seen sprouting : forest giants bent their dark leafy vaults over
the walls of the summit. When we had climbed about 600 feet my guide
pointed out the first plant with the exclamation "Urari-yeh, Urari-yeh"j :
it rose up from under a thick heap of rubble. With a certain amount of
dread I regarded this mischief-making plant, the rapidly acting pro-
perties of which I had now so frequently seen, and still was so often to
see again, and for which an antidote had so far not been discovered.
Even its external conformation had something suspicious about it: the
brown hairy young twigs and leaves, the rough dark-coloured bark of the
older shoots, everything betrayed its awful properties. My eyes sought
in vain for a blossom, but they did not even find a fruit. As this seemed
to be a young plant, I comforted myself with the hope that perhaps
among older specimens I would discover one or the other : yet even this
hope remained unfulfilled, for after we had climbed some 100 feet higher
I found indeed quite aged plants with trunks as thick as one's arm and
with many a twist, but neither flowers nor fruit. The flower must in
general be very small and simple because my Indians, who search for the
plant at all seasons of the year, said that it does not bloom at all. The
Mac u si Indians knew of only three spots where this species of Strychnos
is found in the Canuku Ranges. One is Ilamikipang, the second is where
the Rupununi breaks its way through the range, some two days' journey
from Aripai, a Wapisiana settlement : the third one I am not intimately
acquainted with. Ori my subsequent travels I was fortunate enough to
find the plant in blossom in two hitherto unknown localities, localities
where I would have least expected them, the banks of the Pomeroon and
its tributary, the Sururu. The banks of both streams belong to the
area occupied by the Caribs, but as these are ignorant of the preparation

f — I must mention here that the Indians do not call the poison Wurali but Urari. Walter
Raleigh already quoted the name Ourari, and it is this name that is exclusively applied to it
by the tribes of British Guiana. The Macusis, the most excellent poison-preparers, call it
Urari, the same term that it bears among the Tarumas, Wapisianas, Arekunas, Woyawais
Atorais and Akawais. The fact of the Caribs sounding the letter r almost like an 1 seems to
be the reason for the adoption of the name Wurali now and again. Von Martius also states
that during his travels on the Amazon, Rio Negro and Yupura, he only heard the poison
called Urari and never Wurali as in Surinam : (Travels in Brazil, by Spix and Martius, Vol.
Ill p. 1155.

THE CocK-oF-THE-RocKs' PLAY-GROUND. 347

of the poison, it is probable that they also do not know the dangerous
properties of the plant.

940. In what way did the Indians learn the properties of this
plant, how did they discover it in the midst of these wildernesses? These
questions press themselves on the botanist all the more in that a number
of species of Strychnos are present in the forest oases of the savannah,
even in the immediate neighbourhood of their settlements, and yet are
not utilised by them. Before continuing our journey farther, we cut a
number of 3 to 4 feet long pieces, mostly from the trunk and woody twigs
of the specimens that showed by their young shoots they were full of sap :
we proposed preparing the poison with them on the following day.

941. The higher we climbed the more difficult became the track and

the oftener were we obliged to take a rest: while thus engaged we

suddenly heard the well-known note of the Cock, of-the-rock at not too

great a distance. My companions immediately sneaked with their

weapons in its direction, when soon after one of them returned and told

me to follow him carefully and lightly. We might have crept some

thousand paces through the bush on hands and knees when my curiosity

that had been aroused was satisfied, and on crouching down quietly

beside the other Indians I witnessed a most interesting sight. On the

smooth surface 'of a rocky crag a party of the beautiful birds were

keeping up a dance: a performance that has been doubted by many

ornithologists though not only my brother, but many of the Indians had

already told me plenty concerning it. While about a score of birds,

perched upon the bushes surrounding the play-ground, were uttering the,

most peculiar notes, and apparently constituting an admiring audience,

one of the males was cutting capers on the smooth boulder: in proud

consciousness of self it cocked and dropped its outspread tail and flapped

its likewise expanded wings, and thus continued to figure out the steps

until it seemed to be exhaused, when it flew back on to the bush and its

place was taken by anoher male. The females in the meantime uttered

a peculiar note, watched unweariedly and on the return of the tired

performer uttered a scream denoting applause. The shot of one of the

Indians, whom I had been unable to prevent, dispersed the merry party,

which left four of their partners wounded on the ground. The bird

appears to be of an especially delicate nature because the slightest injury

kills it, which also is the case if just the wing-bones are broken by the

shot. In the crop were found only fruits, especilly hard berries of the

size of a maize corn which belonged to some palm.

942. As the Indians set high store upon the birds' feathers they
particularly keep a look-out for its play-grounds, which are regularly
established, and wait here with their blow-guns for the performers to
put in an appearance : once the ball is opened the birds are so absorbed
with their sport that the hunters can shoot down several of the
spectators perched around.

943. After this interesting interlude we renewed our journey over
the irregular confusion of heaped-up rubble and across whole stretches
of upi-rooted trees, which clearly indicated that frightful storms must
often rage on these heights. In some places these decaying giants

THE SUMMIT OF ILAMI^IPANG.

towered over one another to such an extent that we could not climb
them at all but had to make immense circuits round them. Huge
specimens of the Cryptocarya pretiosa Mart. (Mespilodaphnc pretiosa
Nees. ) , Amapaima of the Macusis, Casca pretiosa of the Brazilians, were
met with: its aromatic cinnamon-smelling bark, of which the Indians
employ a decoction for dysentery, diarrheoa and similar affections,
contains an uncommonly copious amount of ethereal oil. Tillandsiae
and orchids covered the giant trees, which in the damp atmosphere were
rapidly going to absolute ruin. It was only with the greatest effort
after the failure of many an attempt to force our way up, that by a very
great effort we at last reached the summit of Ilamikipang, which ran
out into a small platform covered with a most flourishing growth of
Pitcairniae, Tillandsiac, and a dainty grass. But the reward that offered
itself for my troubles was rich and ample. I must have been standing
some 2,500 feet above the savannah which, with its dun yellow covering,
showed infinitely more extensive than from the Curassawaka. It was the
highest point of the mountain range, the loftiest spot I had hitherto
climbed in Guiana. While my vision in a southerly direction swept
unchecked over the broad savannahs of the Rio Branco, it dwelt in the
North-East upon the Makarapang Range which, rising in the bluish mist,
merged into one and the same contour along with the northern slope of
the Canuku. To the northward, the bleak Pacaraima Range raised its
gloomy head, and towards the North-West some mountain tops, scattered
here and there over the savannah, closed in the view : in the South- West
the glorious panorama was limited by Mounts Zemai, Pasimang and
Yackariwuiburi, the western spurs of the Canuku Range. But at my
feet there reposed a regular waving sea of verdant tree tops out of which,
like rocky crags upon an ocean, there merged huge isolated shattered
masses of granite. Thick clouds of smoke in scattered situations on the
savannah shewed where the Indian Nimrods had been setting fire to the
dry grass, while other smoke columns, curling up in between the thickly
enclosed tops of the forest massif and savannah oases leading to the
base of the range, indicated the peaceful settlements and homes of the
sparse populace. Here and there one could still distinguish in certain
spots the herds of wild cattle grazing in the savannah down below, as
well as the snow-white plumage of the herons and storks which must
have gathered in huge swarms on isolated swamps to encircle them a«
with a white fringe. The most profound rest and quiet reigned at this
height, which was only now and again interrupted by the rustling of the
foliage set in motion by a breath of wind. Not a bird was to be heard,
the carrion crow alone circling around the rocks in unruffled and stately
flight. It was with an effort that I had to tear myeslf away from this
enchanting picture, and although I had already retraced my steps a ;few
times, my tardy feet still hankered after the little platform, until my gaze
once more glided into the ghastly depth. On the northern side the cl/ff
formed a perpendicular abyss several hundred feet deep, out of which
the dark tree tops hardly rose to a quarter of its height : the mere thought
of a false step, of a plunge into the gulf was enough to make one shudder.

WALTER RALEIGH AND URARI POISON. 349

944. Though the ascent of this scene of devastation and seat of
intensive volcanic disturbance was dangerous, the perils were increased
still further during the descent, in the course of which we were at last
forced to abandon the ravine, and clear a road for ourselves through the
wild underwood: we reached the settlement at sundown exhausted and
fatigued after our indescribable troubles and covered with innumerable
cuts, during the receipt of which every plant had claimed a share of my
clothing. I found comforting refreshment after all this exertion in the
small but finger-long fruits of a banana brought me by tbe Indians.
Though I was so tired and my swollen feet smarted so painfully,
curiosity to know the species which bore this hitherto unknown fruit
left me no peace : I still had to go to the provision field. The plant was
as dwarfed as the fmit which did not reach a height even of four
feet: I took it for a variety of MUS& chinensis Sweet. (Musa Cavendishii
Paxton), which it exactly resembles in shape, its habitat alone probably
hindering the luxuriance that it develops on the coast.

945. Before I pass on to a description of the poison itself I may be
allowed to include here the experiences of my brother, who discovered
the chief ingredient of this vegetable poison.

946. The celebrated and unfortunate Walter Raleigh was the first
to bring to Europe accurate information of the existence of a frightful
and rapidly-acting extract called "Ourari," which the aborigines of the
Orinoco and Rio Negro used for the poisoning of their fighting and
hunting arrows. Although, since receipt of the first news, a sort of
general attention had been paid to the subject, it is only within reeent
times, as shown by the many mysterious accounts concerning the in-
gredients and manufacture of the poison, that one has succeeded in
sifting the true from the false. (The accounts of the old;>r travellers
and missionaries, like Hartzinck, Gumilla, Gili and others, rival one
another in fabulous and mysterious particulars. The first one even states
that in order to try the strength and rapid working of the prepared
poison, the Indians shoot an arrow streaked with it into a young tree,
and if the tree dies within three days, the poison has tbe strength
required : fables of this nature need not be further discussed.

947. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Alexander von
Humboldt was the first to give an authentic account of the preparation
of this terribly effective poison which he had witnessed in Esmeraldaf.
Later travellers naturally found the process mentioned by him there far
too simple and sought afresh to veil the preparation of the poison in
mystery: it was maintained that the vegetable extract was only the
medium of the deadly material, and that the Urari received its life-
destroying powers only through the addition of the teeth of the most
venomous snakes, such as Tricjonoccphalus, Crotalus, etc., together with
dangerous ants such as Ponera and Cryptocerus, as well as from
Capsicums, etc. None of these individuals, however, could have
witnessed its preparation and seen the addition of these ingredients:
their information ig always supported only by the accounts of the
• __^ — _

t— Voyages aux Regions Equitioxiales. Tome VIII page'153.

350 LIMITED DISTRIBUTION OF THE URA.RI,

Indians, who naturally take care to keep the manufacture of the poison
as dark as they possibly can.

948. It was on account of these varying reports that rny brother
felt induced to devote his utmost attention to the subject on his first
expedition to the interior of British Guiana. He was fortunate enough
to see a portion of his wish realised already on the upper Kupunuui, for
he at least got to know botanically the dangerous plant that supplies the
chief ingredient for the Urari. In the Wapisiana settlement of Aripai
on the Kupununi, in 3° Lat. North, he was informed that the plant grew,
on the'Canuku Kaiiges not a day and a half distant from the village,
and in company with some Indians left for the spot indicated. After a
very difficult march they reached at Mount Mamesna a Wapisiana
settlement where they spent the night and, besides that, found to his
great joy, a resident who not only knew accurately the habitat of the
plant, but also understood the manufacture of its poison. * The latter
expressed his willingness to fetch him out branches and bark of the same
in sufficient quantity, but declined to take my brother to where the plants
grew: it was only by means of many a gift that he could be finally
prevailed upon to act as guide. On the following morning they took
their departure and after many difficulties, for the way led through a
rocky terrain, discovered the first plant. Although this showed neither
flowers nor fruit, my brother recognised in it a species of Stryclmos which
he named 'Strychnos toaoifera.t Nevertheless the Indian eould not be
induced by any manner of means to manufacture the poison in his
presence and so my brother had to content himself with the accounts given
him of its preparation. It was to be expected that the many mysterious
details of the earlier travellers in British Guiana, of Waterton for
example, were too inrooted amongst the Colonists for them to believe
the simple method of preparation with which my "brother furnished them
on his return. .The certainty that only the vegetable extract of a plant
gave rise to the terrible effects was doubted, these being ascribed to the
poison-fangs of snakes, to ants, and to peppers.

949. In 1837, during the second expedition which my brother under-
took up the Esse'qmbo, he found opportunity for again visiting the region
of the Urari plant. During his stay in Pirara he learnt *hat in the
neighbourhood of the Canuku Mountains there lived a Macusi Indian,
who was recognised as the most celebrated Urari manufacturer of the
whole tribe. He looked Mm rip and by means of certain promises,
succeeded in prevailing upon him to prepare the poison in his presence.
In company with the poison maker he undertook beforehand an excursion
to the western extremity of the Cannku range, where the plant was also
said to grow, so as to obtain from there not only the material for the
poison, but also perhaps to find the plant in flower: the Ilamikipang
was the second habitat of the plant, about 18 miles in a southeasterly
'direction from the place "where he saw it for the first time in 1835.
Under the same difficulties with which I subsequently had to contend
they also obtained the first plants; he indeed now again found the plant

f— See Robert Hermann Schomburgh's Reise in Guiana und am Orineko p.94,

AND DIFFERENT METHODS OF PREPARATION. 351

without flowers, but yet supplied with some fruits that confirmed the
conjecture that it was a species of Strychnos. After collecting the
necessary Urari bark required, but only removing it from plants which
were found in full sap, they returned to Pirara. The cnanufacture of
the poison was again delayed a few days, for the poison maker maintained
that he had to submit himself to a strict preparatory fast. During this
interval a celebrated and influential Macusi chieftain, named Kanaima,
from Rupununi appeared at Pirara and prevailed upon the poison
maker to withdraw his promise to prepare the poison in my brother's
presence. Although the individual energetically demanded the return
of the collected bark, my brother refused to give delivery, but took it
with him when the expedition changed its quarters from Pirara to Fort
Sao Joaquim. Here he started making researches on his own account
with the bark of the Stryclinos toxifera alone, and to extract poison from
it. For this purpose about two pounds of bark was pounded up, put into
a new pot and a gallon of water poured on top. It was left standing
for 24 hours and half of the extract, that had taken on a brownish
colour, emptied into another new vessel which was boiled over a moderate
fire down to the consistency of syrup: during this process the still
remaining original extract was gradually poured over it. Two fowls
were wounded wTith this poison, one in the foot, the other in the neck,
and though the effects were visible in the course of five minutes, the
former died 27 minutes, and the latter 28 minutes after inoculation.
This was a sure demonstration that the Strychnos toxifera alone, with-
out any mixing of other ingredients, developed the deadly properties,
and that all the other additions of the Indians did not contribute
essentially to its strength. The boiling process was already com-
pleted in 7 hours, while that of the Indians requires often more than
48, on which account the extract would be considerably more concen-
trated, and the slower effects of the poison as prepared bv my brother,
explained. It had a, lisrht brownish tinge, while that of the Macusis
showed a brown-black colour, which it probably receives frv m the other
ingredients added to it by these people.

950. Though the vegetable poison is indigenous among several
tribes of Indians between the Amazon stream and the Orinoco, its
manufacture, as well as its remaining ingredients, nevertheless varies
in every individual tribe. (This want of uniformity in its pre-
paration is also the reason why its strength and time to take effect
varies so much amongst the different people who make it. I have already
stated that the presence of the hardiest plants of Strychnos toxifera is
strictly limited to a few localities within the area of country occupied
by the Macnsis. This might well also be the reason why these are
generally celebrated far and wide as the makers of the strongest poison.
While the arrow poison of the tribes on the Eio Negro and Orinoco,
which we obtained by accident, only took effect after hours, the denth
struggle with that of the Macusis occurred in as many minutes. This
celebrated strength of the Macusi poison annually brings whole caravans
of Indians from the Rio Negro, Orinoco, and even the Amazon stream,

352 LIMITED MANUFACTURE OF THE POISON

to the Canuku Ranges to barter the urari. prepared by its inhabitants for
other articles.

951. Von Martius portrays the manufacture of the poison by the
Juris, Passes, Tecunas, and other tribes on the Amazon and Yupura.t
Poeppig describes it from Peru and Chili,* and Humboldt as made in
Esmeralda on the Orinoco:! but all these tribes, according to the
accounts given, utilise ingredients completely at variance with one
another. On visiting Esmeralda in 1839 my brother found the mission
that was in so flourishing a condition in Humboldt's day, occupied by
but a single family: the old patriarch informed him that he bartered
his arrow poison from the Indian tribes occupying the watershed of the
Paramu and Ventuari, particularly from the Guinaus and Midongkongs.
Both these tribes whom my brother had already visited call their arrow
poison Cumarawa and Makuri, but they preferred the Urari manufao
tured by the Macusis, on account of its more rapid effects, to their own.
The articles of trade which the Arekunas, as already mentioned, receive
from them for it are the well-known blow-guns or the bare stalks of
Arundinaria Schomburgkii.

952. During his stay amongst these tribes my brother convinced
himself that for the main ingredient of their poison they either used
the bark of Rouhamon gnianensis Aubl. (Lasiostoma oirrhosa Willd.)
or Strychnos cogens Benth. But though their poison resembles Urari
both as regards colour and consistency, it remains far behind it in
strength, as I have already noted. When my brother showed the
Guinaus and Maiongkongs some dried specimens of the Strychnos
toxifcm which happened to be in his herbarium, the plant seemed to be
completely unknown to them, whilst they immediately recognised the
examples of Strychnos cogens and Rouhamon and pointed out that these
were the plants from out of which they manufactured their arrow poison.

953. In British Guiana also, the manufacture of the arrow poison
is limited to only^ a few of the tribes. Von Martius, who says the same
thing of the tribes of Brazil, gives as a reason that these same plants,
which supply the chief ingredients of the deadly extract though found over
a lar«-e area are not proportionately distributed, but are present in
isolated places, for which reason the manufacture of the Urari is
peculiar to certain tribes and hordes only. As far as the aborigines of
Guiana are concerned, this statement cannot be valid because, as will be
seen in the progress of my journey, not only is the Strychnos toxifcra
found on the Pomeroon but other species of Sirychnos grow on the
Barama and Waini, a territory occupied by Warraus, Caribs and
Arawaks, who do not use arrow-poison and know nothing about the
properties of the plant. In British Guiana it is only the tribes who use
the blow-gun as a weapon that know and employ the arrow poison.

954. During his second stay at Pirara in 1837 my brother was just as
unsuccessful in becoming witness to the manufacture of the article and

t_Ree Beise in Braailien Vol. IIT p.1155.
*__Reise in Peru und Chili Vol. II p.4f>fi.
J— Voyages aux Regions Equinoxiales Vol. VIII p. 153.

PUREKA, THE MAKUSI.

(TEEMS ARE ARRANGED WITH THE POISON-MAKER. 353

accordingly, when leaving the village, commissioned Mi*. Youd to induce
the poison-maker of the Canuku Ranges to manufacture it in his
presence, and then inform him of the process. Mr. Youd succeeded in
getting this done in front of the door of the hut specially built for the
purpose, where lie could watch the process quite distinctly. On his
third visit to Pirara in 1839, my brother was likewise present at its
manufacture. The combined information of these two witnesses
corresponds in almost every repect with that of mine, which may well
have its reason in the fact that we watched its preparation by one and the
same person.

955. Let me resume the thread of my story ( Sec. 936) . To my conster-
nation, en reminding the old poison-maker next morning of his promise, he
offered all sorts of excuses, complained of sickness and headache and
wanted another few days' postponement. The wily Indian knew only
too well from experience that such a specious refusal would considerably
increase the payment, and I found myself forced, in order to gain my
purpose, to add some powder and a few knives to the reward already
promised.

956. At last I was about to have my lively wish fulfilled to see the
actual making of the poison, about which so many a marvellous tale has
been told, just as there is about anything else that is enveloped in a
certain amount of mystery, when I found that, except for certain
unessential ceremonies, it was as simple as it could possibly be.

957. The small house that I took for the chemist's laboratory
immediately after my arrival, was indeed the Urari-house. The Indian
now started to peel off the bark and sapwood (both portions are said
to contain the poisonous substance to an extreme degree), and then
fetched out the other ingredients that he seemed to have on hand, and
divided them up in the quantities required. Unfortunately, I could not
identify the three plants, the barks of which he added to the Strychnos:
lie called them Tarireng, Wokarimo, and .Tararemu. To all appearances
they also belonged to species of Rtrychnos, and upon my asking him
where they came from, he gave me for answer ''Far, far away in the
Ranges. It takes four days to get there." The relative proportions of
the complete ingredients, according to weight, might be the following : _

Bark and sapwood of TJrari (Strychnos toxifera) .... 2 Ibs.

Bark of Yakki (Strychnos Schoniburgkii. Kl. n.s.) .... \ lb.

„ „ Arimaru (Strychnos cogens Benth.) .... *

Tarireng .... .... •• • ! „

Wokarimo .... .... .... .... | „

Root of Tarireng .... .... .... .... $ oz.

„ „ Tararemu .... .... .... .... \ „

Fleshy root of Muramu (Cissus sp.f)
Four small wooden chips of Manuca.*

* — Manuca is the strongly bitter wood of a tree of the family Xanihoxylfae. The bark
and the wood is used on the Rio Negro, Amazon and Rio Branco as an effective, remedy
against syphilitic diseases. All the ingredients that the Macusis employ for the manufacture
of the poison are uncommonly bitter.

I WATCH THE POISON MADE.

958. On concluding these preparations, he went to his house and
returned with a new clay pot that might hold about four quarts, and two
other smaller, also quite new, shallow globular-shaped utensils, stepped
into the urari laboratory, and put the vessels down. In the former the
poison had to be boiled; in the latter it had to be exposed to the sun
for thickening. The large strainer or funnel, made out oi a palm-
blossom envelope, was cleaned and fresh silk-grass through which to sift
the fluid laid on it: the large hollowed-out block of wood that served
as a mortar was likewise cleaned out, because the various ingredients
had to be crushed in it. When the Indian had got everything accurately
and orderly arranged, had built a fire-hearth of three stones and placed
the wood for the fire, he again betook himself to a distance, in order,
as my companions explained, — because up to now not a word had been
exchanged between him and myself— to fetch the implements for
lighting the fire, although a big one, which of course had been lighted
by profane hands, was burning close by. Just as little dare water that
has not been fetched from the stream in the pot, as well as any implement
in general that has not been made by his own hands, or any assistance
on the part of the residents, be requisitioned or used : every transgression
of these hallowed laws will render the poison ineffective.

959. Besides the fleshy root of the Muramu, the different barks were
now pounded somewhat in the mortar, but one at a time, the carefully
stacked up wood lighted, and the Urari bark first of all thrown into the
pot, filled with water, standing over the fire : as already stated there may
be quite fojur quarts of water in it. As soon as its contents began to
boil, the Indian, always at fixed intervals, threw in a handful of the
remaining ingredients, except the Muramu root, on each occasion
bending over the vessel and blowing forcibly into the mass, u procedure
that was to contribute largely to the strength of the poison. While this
was gowff on he only kept up so much fire as was necessa.'y for a gentle
boiling- at the same time that he carefully skimmed the scum collecting
on the surface, leaving it but momentarily during the next 24 hours,
what time the fire was kept at a continuous even heat. As a result of
this the extract had become tolerably thick, might have been boiled down
to about a quart, and had at the same time assumed the colour of a
strong decoction of coffee. The old chap now took the mass from off the
fire and poured it into the strainer already mentioned: the extract
trickled slowly down into one of the shallow vessels, the remaining
portion being left behind in the silk-grass. After exposing the strained
liquid about three hours to the full sunshine, he added to it the slimy
expressed juice of the Muramu root (which had been previously soaked
for a short while in the boiling prison and then squeezed out) when the
poison immediately showed a striking change, by coagulating into a
jelly-like mass. After this peculiar procedure, he poured it into yet
flatter earthen vessels, which were exposed to the sun for still further
thickening, namely, to a thick syrupy consistence. The poison was after-
wards poured into the small calabashes or small half -globular earthen
vessels specially manufactured for the purpose,, where it then became

AND ITS EFFECTS TESTED. 355

quite hard: these pots were tightly closed with palm leaves or small
pieces of animal skin. The Uraii was ready on the third day, when the
contented manufacturer tried its strength in my presence, for which
object he had caught several large lizards. He dipped the tip of
a needle that he had received from me into the black syrupy mass, let the
poison hanging on to it dry, stuck one of the lizards in a toe of the
hind leg and let it run: in the course of nine minutes the peculiar
appearances of the poisoning set in, and a minute later the lightly
wounded creature was dead. A second and a third were stuck in the
tail, where it gave practical proof of its efficacy within the same period.
He had purposely chosen the lizards for experiment, because he main-
tained that the effects were apparent half as quick again with warm-
blooded animals than with amphibians. A rat which a boy caught also
confirmed the statement for it was dead in four minutes, a fowl that I
had intended for my lunch already in three. Each of the latter animals
was only almost imperceptibly wounded.

960. The old man assured me that the poison, if good and especially
if kept dry, maintained its deadly effective strength for years. When it
loses its strength, they restore it by means of a little juice of the poison-
cassava root (Manihot utilissima). After pouring some of it into the
poison; calabash, they bury the latter, well covered, in the ground, and
leave it there a day and a half: by that time the juice his mixed with
the poison, the strength of which is said to be revived thereby.

961. That the poison after such an interval does in fact require a
longer time to take effect, I have learnt by experience with poison made
in my presence, because I brought it with me to Berlin and several times
made experiments with it when from 15 to 20 minutes, according to the
creature's tenacity of life, would often elapse before death took place.
Unfortunately, one has not yet succeeded in obtaining a completely
exhaustive analysis of the poison although the universally renowned
chemist, Dr. Heintz of Berlin, has been a long time engaged on it.*

* Dr Heintz has kindly allowed me to publish his results so far obtained, for which I am
all the more indebted because they constitute at all events the first, to a certain extent at
least, detailed analysis of the much discussed poison: —

"Herewith, as requested, please find the certainly still incomplete results of my re-
searches on the Urari poison received from you. The few prominent properties of its
essential ingredient, especially its inability to crystallise either alone or in conjunction with
other substances, stand in the way of its more accurate investigation and above every-
thing else in obtaining it in a pure condition.

"In investigating this substance, it seemed to me above all important to prove the
absence of strychnine which, for the rest, might have been expected owing to its being
derived from a species of Strychnos, although judging from the nature and manner of its
effects on the organism, it bears absolutely no resemblance whatever to it. With this
end in view I boiled the watery solution of the substance with magnesia, filtered the
precipitate, and after washing, boiled it with alcohol. This took up but an extremely small
quantity of some extract-like stuff and on evaporation left no trace of strychnine.

" I accordingly tried, on the method laid down by von Boussingault (Annales de Chim.
et de Phys. 38, 24), to obtain the soluble salty base discovered by him in the poison. The
portion of the Urari dissolved in alcohol and water was treated according to his directions
with tincture of gall, whereby the poisonous material was precipitated in conjunction with
tannin. He dissolved this precipitate in oxalic acid and boiled the solution with magnesia
so as to separate both the oxalic acid as well as the tannin. He filtered off the watery so-
lution, evaporated it, and extracted the poisonous material with alcohol whereupon some
insoluble magnesia-salt was left behind.

356 SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING TlRARI MANUFACTURE.

" In the course of my experiments I also secured a considerable deposit from the
watery solution of the portion of Urari dissolved in alcohol and water by the addition of
pure tannic acid obtained by Pelouze's method. Nevertheless, it did not dissolve so easily
in oxalic acid as Boussingault mentions: on the other hand it was fairly easily soluble in
boiling water. I therefore took it still moist from the filter and boiled it with magnesia :
on evaporating to dryness there remained an extract-like material, which, on removal with
alcohol, still left some insoluble magnesia-salt behind. The substance, boiled afresh, form-
ed a brown-yellow extract that did not give an alkaline reaction as Boussingault states, but
possessed the poisonous properties of Urari to a high degree.

" It was impossible to regard this substance as pure, because it could only be obtained
as a brown extract. I accordingly searched for re-agents other than tannic acid, which
might be able to precipitate it, and found them in mercury chloride and platinum chloride :
with the latter, the precipitate was almost insoluble, with the former, on the other hand,
it dissolved to a considerable degree by washing.

" I now treated the poison that had been precipitated by the tannic acid and again
separated from it, by platinum chloride; the yellow precipitate that under the microscope
seemed to be amorphous was washed, decomposed by heating with sulphuretted hydrogen,
and I boiled the fluid that was filtered off from the platinum sulphide, with lead oxide.
The poison could then be again extracted from the residue with alcohol, but as it still
gave a yellow-brown extract after evaporation of the alcohol, I was unable to regard
it as pure. Accordingly, I treated it afresh with chloride of mercury, washed the precipi-
tate a few times and then separated the organic matter from the chlorine and mercury in
the same way that it had been separated previously from the platinum and chlorine. Still,
the material obtained was again a yellow-brown extract, although the precipitate obtained
by the mercury chloride was completely white.

From the preceding, it will be seen that I have not yet succeeded in obtaining the pois-
onous material contained in the Urari in a pure state. Nevertheless, even in the impure
condition in which I did obtain it, the smallest quantity was very effective. A rabbit, into
which I introduced barely 3 milligrammes in a fresh wound in the thigh, was dead in seven
minutes.

"This poisonous extract contains nitrogen, as can easily be demonstrated by Lassaigue's
method with soda. It gives precipitates with tannic acid, platinum chloride and mercury
chloride. The two former are yellow and the latter white. I have not been able to discov-
er other prominent reactions of the substance.

" Besides the most important ingredient of the Urari poison, I found it to contain sugar,
gum, resin, extractive matter, tannic acid, gallic acid and traces of compound salts of
organic acids, probably tartaric and citric.

" This is all in short that I can tell you about the results of my investigations.

DR. HEINTZ.

962. Of all the many myths about the manufacture of Urari in associa-
tion with pounded poison-fangs of the most venomous snakes, of ants,
capsicums, etc., — articles which so many travellers, who have witnessed
its preparation, maintain they themselves have seen added, I have at
least noticed nothing amongst the Macusis, although their poison is the
most celebrated and most rapidly effective of any between the Amazon
stream and the Orinoco. My old poison-maker, from whom I made
enquiry, told me that neither the one nor the other was necessary and
that he never added these, at the same time denying that they would
contribute to its quicker action. The most difficult task for him was
that he must submit to a stringent fast both before and during its manu-
facture. A further inviolable rule demands that during the boiling no
woman nor maid, and most certainly no pregnant female, should come
near the factory : the poison-maker's wife must also not happen to be in
this condition. He also asked me, during the manufacture, not to eat
any sugar-cane or sugar. t The fire below the pot must not be completely
extinguished. Were any one of these tabus to be broken all his skill would
prove ineffectual in preventing the article losing its virtue. The

t— This prohibition may well be the reason for the Indians believing that sugar-juice is
an antidote for a wound by Urari : they consequently believe it would also lose its strength
if an Indian after eating sugar-cane were to come close to the poison while being boiled.

No ANTIDOTE HITHERTO DISCOVERED. 357

poison maker also believes tliat he is sick for some days af tei preparing
it. Mr. Youd informed me that the man who made the poison in Ids
presence had commenced it on a Friday, and when on Sunday he told
him to stop the boiling which he only reluctantly did, he had, neverthe-
less, kept under the pot during this very day at least some glowing char-
coal; furthermore, he also did not attend Divine Service but sat outside
the church by the window, for had he mixed among the crowd the
strength of the article would have been destroyed. The manufacture of
Urari seems to be without any danger; even the vapours that
rise from the boiling poison are absolutely harmless, and only the
stipulation that the boiling of the poison requires a few days, during
which time the developing scum has to be continually skimmed, as well
as the fatiguing superstitious custom which the poison maker lias to
follow appear to be the reason why it is manufactured only once a year
or at the very most, twice.

9C3. As I almost daily, when out hunting, found opportunity to
observe the effects of the poison, I was able to sketch out for myself a
table indicating the tenacity of life of the different animals and classes
of animals; this reached its maximum in the sloth. It is possible this
may lie due to the animal's peculiar vascular system and its consequent
restricted and slow circulation: briefly put, ^the effects on it are the
longest to appear, but at the same time the shortest to lest, because
with this animal there is no sign of even weak or slight convulsions as
are always apparent in other creatures when the poison begins to act.
I scratched the upper lip of a sloth, rubbed a drop of the poison into the
wound, which gave no particle of blood, and then removed it close to a
tree up which it commenced to climb. After clambering some ten or
twelve feet it suddenly clung to the trunk, turned its head to this
side and that, tried to resume the ascent, which it was no longer able to
do, and then let go first of all with one of its forefeet, and soon after-
wards with the other, but still remained hanging by its hind feet, until
these also became limp, when it fell to the ground where, without any
spasmodic convulsions, without any at all taking place even, it lay
breathing with difficulty, until by the thirteenth minute its life had sped.

964. An effective antidote for Urari has indeed not been discovered
so far, although the Indians mention many a one, but cannot guarantee
escape absolutely. As already stated, among such is included sugar-
juice alone, or mixed with the infusion from the root of a species of
Wallaba (Eperua or Dimorpha) ; salt is also said to be counteractive.
It is maintained that those poisoned with Urari suffer from the most
awful thirst. For several years past many experiments have been made
in London, particularly on donkeys, and in one case with successful
results. For instance, a jenny was pricked in the shoulder; ten minutes
later the symptoms of the death struggle were ended, and through an inci-
sion in the wind-pipe, atmospheric air was immediately and forcibly intrcr
duced into the lungs for two solid hours continuously, and the apparently
escaped life returned : the donkey began to move her head, but with the

358 STOICAL COURAGE OF AN INDIAN.

stoppage of pure air the signs of recalled vitality disappeared. After
another two hours the forced air could be dispensed with; the animal
once more stood erect on her legs and showed no further paralyses,
while the wound through which the poison had been introduced healed
without any trouble: it was only that all the generative? functions
seemed to have been essentially disturbed, a disturbance that was re-
covered after the course of a year. From what the Indians say, the poison
acts quickest on monkeys and on felines.

965. I am repeating a story as it was told me that at the same time
illustrates with what stoical courage, with what dignified ^solution, the
Indian submits to the inevitable. Two hunters go after monkeys Avith
their blow-gun : they soon find their quarry — but one of them misses
his mark, the little arrow falls back and strikes the hunt3r'3 arm where
it remains stuck. He calmly pulls out the deadly tip, squats on the
ground, takes his blow-gun, breaks it in pieces, puts his quiver and arrows
beside him exclaiming "I don't want you again," says good-bye to his
companion, and dies without saying another word.

966. As the action of the poison has been described so many times
already, I would only just note here that if taken internally it is
without effect, provided the mouth or palate is free from abrasion. When
the Indians smear the arrow tips with it and a bit sticks on their fingers,
I have often seen them licking it off without spitting it out again, and
frequently enough done the same thing myself. As a matter of fact my
brother on his first journey even took it in small 'doses as a cure for
fever when the quinine ran out, but experienced a peculiar headache
every time after taking it : his companions who recognised the dangerous
character of the experiment, because he could easily have had an abrasion
on the gums or palate without knowing it, broke him of the
habit.* Increased atmospheric moisture deprives the poison of its
strength, for which reason it is kept by the Indians in the driest spots of
the house.

* These actual experiences are certainly opposed by others according to which the poison
shows fatal results also if taken internally. Amongst the many experiments carried out by my
brother, Otto Schomburgk, was one where he supplied three equally vigorous and
healthy cats, the one with the poison externally, the second internally, and the
third with an equal quantity of strychnine externally. The convulsions of the
Urari poisoning completely sank into the background as compared with the tetanus
and trismus of the strychnine poisoning, and the death produced by it in the former
cases was, as compared with the latter, a quiet sleep. The cat externally poisoned
with the Urari died in the course of 11 minutes, the one with strychnine in 12. The
animal to which the Urari had been administered internally lived for 17 minutes, its death
being accompanied by symptoms similar to those with the externally poisoned one : on dissec-
tion, the stomach as well as the whole of the small intestines was coloured with the dissolved
poison, and no sign of a wound was to be seen either in the mouth or in the gullet. To
these enquiries made several years ago. I now subjoin the following interesting facts in connec-
tion with the inward and outvvard application of Urari that have been established as the result
of a whole series of experiments carried out at the beginning of the present year by Dr. Virchow
prosector of the Koniglichen Charite, and Dr. Julius Munter. The material investigated by
them had been prepared in my presence, and accordingly must have been five years old. Here
also, the internal poisoning showed the same effects as those noticed bv my brother on the cats
treated by him. Both gentlemen inform me of their results in the following letter, for which
I hereby publicly express my thanks, because through its agency many an erroneous impression
of the toxic effect will be refuted, while it is to be hoped at the same time that as a result of
their efforts a correct knowledge of the poison will be obtained,

EXPERIMENTS WITH URARI POISON. 359

" The opinion has been recently expressed, particularly by Oesterlen (Handbuch der Heil-
mittellehre, Tubingen. 1845, p. 853) that the American arrow-poison Urari (Woorara, Oester-
len) and Curari (apparently identical with Urari) undoubtedly contained strychnine, and were
said to produce quicker paralyses, but on the other hand less convulsions and cramps of the ex-
tensors. In spite of the second part of the assertion, which contradicts the first, Oesterlen in-
cludes the so-called arrow-poison, under the section of Pure Tetanica, Spinantia, under which
are to be found Nux vomica, Strychnine, Brucin, Cocculus indicus, and Faba St. Ignatii.

" It appears now, however, from Dr. Heintz's analysis that there is no strychnine at all in
Urari, although the physiological effects adduced by Oesterlen appear to correspond with Wa-
terton's observations and your own. As we, however, havp had the advantage of making direct
trial with the poison itself, we gladly seize the opportunity of reporting in more detail on the
toxic effects and final post-mortem appearances of Urari. In spite of the material, according
to your own showing being already five years old, and notwithstanding the opinion of the Ma-
cusis, that it loses its essential properties within a space of two, we found it still so drastically
effective that we all had the reason to guard ourselves against getting poisoned.

" Out of the still very firm extract of a brown-black colour and brittle consistency, we made
a solution of O. G7 grammes to the dram of distilled water. A few drops of this concentrated
solution was diluted with several ounces of distilled water and the undamaged hind foot of a
frog held in it for 20 minutes : during this time the limb was sprinkled with a f aw drops of the
concentrated solution, so as to give every opportunity for absorption to take place. But as the
frog remained without any change we thought that the poison, so carefully applied, must be non-
effective, or else that, according to your expressed opinion, its powers had really diminished and
took longer to act. Within a quarter of an hour the creature was jumping round about all the
more lively, and had apparently suffered nothing.

" We accordingly let a drop of the concentracted solution fall into an open serous
cavity on the creature's right shoulder-blade : in the course of 6 minutes it tumbled on its
front legs, which it placed flat on the table, whereupon the hind-quarters fell upon the
outspread hind-legs ana the frog was dead. On applying mechanical irritation, no convulsions
followed : striking the board on which it lay produced no reflex action. A solution of strychnine
inserted drop by drop in the wound of the already paralysed animal proved entirely
without results.

" Ten drops of the same poison-solution were poured into a freshly cut wound in the
neck of a raboit. Before the end of three minutes, the animal sank altogether in a heap,
involuntarily bent its head to the ground, where its front legs lay limp : this was followed
by a few weak contractions of the flexors of the hind extremities, as well as by a peculiar
motion of the under-lips, although these movements soon subsided. The heart-beat first
of all stopped, then became regular again, its strength failed, and at the end of the seventh
minute could no longer be felt. The thorax was opened, the auricles were still contracting,
though weak. We accordingly performed tracheotomy and maintained respiration by
blowing air into the wind-pipe, when the heart at the same time commenced to contract,
violently, the auricles indeed more than the ventricles. After keeping up artificial respiration
for 6 or 7 minutes, when the experiment was interrupted, we noticed the auricles still
contracting in the 20th minute. Opening the heart for the first time on the following day
normal blood-clots were found : the auimal was in a state of rigor mortis.

li Another rabbit had a skin-wound an inch in length made in the middle down its back
and twenty drops of the concentrated solution poured into it. The animal yet eating a
little while subsequently to the operation, let its head drop involuntarily at the end of 12
minutes, the hinder portions of the body together with the outspread fore-feet lying limp
upon the ground. Fifteen minutes after the administration the animal did not stir when
pulled by the ears, and when held up by the same the extremities hung down limp and loose :
the heart however still beat, at first in longer intervals with a short double-beat, then became
regular, 96 10 a minute, but after 20 minutes could no longer be felt. On opening the animal,
straightway, it showed nothing in the way of blood-clots in the smaller or larger veins. The
blood removed from the heart itself was still fluid, without alteration of colour, but clotted
in a few minutes like the blood of slaughtered animals. The blood corpuscles were unaltered.
The internal movements continued for some time longer. But while the ordinary muscular
substance was still inclined to contract at the spots directly irritated, nerve irritation produced
no motor signs.

*The above specified solution was also applied to the poisoning of a cat. We made a
skin-wound li inches long over the right shoulder blade, poured 10 drops of the solution
into the wound, and let the loosened animal run about freely after the operation. While running
around the room so sprightly, it crept to our great regret into the unknown piping of an
empty stove that happened to be there. It was only got out 20 minutes later wnen it lay
paralysed on the flooring boards. The head remained in any random position in Tvhich it was
put, but the flexors of the extremities contracted frequently and briskly, the heart at first
beat 88 to the minute and gradually stopped, though later than the contractions just
mentioned. Tracheotomy was now performed, and artificial respiration kept up
for 28 minutes, with the result that the heart commenced to beat afresh with 264 to the
minute. However, there was no return of the sensory functions or motor effects, but on
the application of a powerful mechnical stimulant, the animal's muscular system showed
contractions.

From these experiments of ours we believe it must be now admitted : —

(1) That Urari, after being preserved in a dry7 condition for five years has au iuten.-
sive and rapid action even in small doses,

360 WASSI POISON.

•

(2) That Urari iu conformity with its chemical composition produces none of the effects
of strychnine.

(3) That Urari does not belong to the tetanus class of poisons, while it acts as a
torporific similar to opium in big doses ; if a few signs of convulsions are seen in cats
they at all events constitute neither tetanus nor trismus.

(4) That Urari far rather causes paralysis i.e., inhibition of voluntary muscular movement
with the voluntary muscles (heart, intestines) continuing their function.

(5) That Urari does not appear to kill by absorption if applied externally, but chiefly
only if absorbed when there is a rupture in thts continuity of the living animal tissue.

(6) That after poisoning by Urari, rigor mortis and coagulation of the fibrin takes place in
the same way as with an animal killed by mechanical means. Our opinion is that deatn is not
so much due to the direct action of the poison as to the cessation of respiratory movements.

Dr Virchow, Dr Julius Muuter.

907. Attention has already been drawn to Wassi poison, and to its
being found especially among the Akawais, who receive it from the
Serekongs, a tribe occupying the sources of the Mazaruni; the latter
alone understand how to make it.

968. In Von Sack's "Reise nach Surinam," mention is made of an
extremely poisonous Arum which is called Punkin there. The plant
(Arum venenatum Surinamense Woelfers) is said to be so poisonous that
a dog, to which ten grains of the juice were administered, died shortly
after. It is quite possible that the Serekongs manufacture their poison
also from a species of Arum with which the description of the root of the
latter plant tallies. Could not the effects of the pulverised bulb be more
slow than that of the juice? On our subsequent journeys many cases
presented themselves where Indians, affected with the symptoms
specified, hastened to us to seek assistance and recovery. Each one
maintained that he was poisoned with Wassi. Although cases of real
poisoning do actually take place, it is not to be denied that the ever-
lasting suspicion and continual terror of the onci having in some way
injured another, who now might step forth as Kanaima and make an
attempt on his life, is the cause of many a death. As a matter of fact,
this dread and mistrust becomes an absolute certainty immediately an
individual suffers from the symptoms of any complaint hitherto unknown
to him, which he now regards as the effect of a poison that he probably
never even tasted, with the result that, worried day and night by his
lively imagination, his anxiety is at last roused to such a pitch that,
unable longer to withstand the mental strain, his body falls a sacrifice to
fear and fright.*

969. After a further stay of several days I returned with my friends
to Nappi, where I found letters from my brother recalling me
to Pirara owing to the expedition wanting to leave for the sources of
the Takutu. Eiclily laden with spoil and contented in every respect
with my, trip, I started on my return journey to Pirara, where I
found everything satisfactory. I brought with me some Indians, who
were anxious to engage with us as carriers on the Takutu trip.

970. During my short absence the settlement, under the fostering
care of Mr. Youd, had almost become unrecognisable owing to the

* — In the cases coming under my own personal notice there was no question of fear or
fright, but a deliberate intent to lie down and die: imbued with the idea that his tiyneis
come, the Indian stoically awaits the end. I have met with the same mental condition
amongst the North Queeuland savages, where I have described it as Thanatomania. (Ed.)

BRAZILIANS DESERT TO THE BRITISH. 361

tidiness and cleanliness that now prevailed; it seemed a different spot
altogether. The military in the meantime had also left the village
and retired within their defences, a small entrenchment guarded by
barracks built of palm-fronds, to which the officers' quarters as well as
the magazine, also covered with palm-leaves, were attached. The fortifica-
tion was encircled by a ditch several feet wide and deep as well as by a
five-foot high wall. Of what use such a fort would really prove if it
came to a Question of serious fighting with the Brazilians I could not
rightly appreciate, even with my naturally slight tactical knowledge.
The military had to fetch their water from a tolerable distance and,
owing to the tropical heat, the Brazilians could have very easily forced
the garrison to capitulate by cutting off the supply, even if they had not
wanted to drive them out of their stronghold by setting fire to the
magazine and barracks with fire-arrows, in the shooting of which they
are unusually proficient. The Fort received the name of New Guinea.

971. On my first visit to it, I met the three deserters who had caused
such an uproar at Nappi : the officers had received them with open arms
and gladly gave them all they wanted, because it would now be possible
to supply the military with fresh meat twice weekly. The horses that
Mr. Youd as well as the officers had bought from Captain Leal enabled
them to make use of their lassoes. Even if the captain had come to
Pirara immediately after their flight and confirmed his opinion that the
deserters would probably have made their way here, his demand for their
surrender would have been met with anything but a favourable hearing,
for with the extradition of the turncoats it would have been good-bye to
the fresh meat. Captain Leal had accordingly to be satisfied with pro-
claiming them outlaws and return to Sao Joaquim with nothing- done.
Although many of their old comrades would gladly have earned the price
set upon their heads, the deserters were nevertheless too wide awake and
so far had fortunately known how to avoid all the traps cunningly set
for them.

972. The cattle caught with the lasso was every time driven by the
vaqueiros to the Fort and then shot. Hardly was one killed and
slaughtered than the carrion-kites (Cathartcs aura and foctens 111.),
Carrion-crows of the Colonists, flew down from all quarters of the wind,
so that often within an hour 300 to 400 of these voracious birds had
come to swallow the remnants and offal, — to their own disadvantage,
however, because the officers usually dispelled the ennui that had set in
by loading one of the cannon with musket ball, turning this upon the
thickest swarm and firing, when from 40 to 50 specimens would be left
behind at the spot picked on.

973. The many conflicting accounts found in the different natural
history books concerning the mode of life of the Ca-tharte* aura and
foctcns (the skin of the head is of a dirty flesh colour in the former, but
blackened in the latter) led me to pay special attention to the^bird, with
a view to sifting the true from the false by personal observation. The
contradictions just mentioned have also prompted me to describe the
experiences gained, especially as they might be of more general interest.

362 THE CARRION CROW.

974. The Cathartes is one of the most numerous and yet at the same
time one of the most useful birds in almost the whole of South America.
It differs from eagles and remaining birds of prey, particularly in its
external conformation, by its prominent eyes and less crooked talons,
its bare warty head and neck, and by the thick feather-down with
which the inner side of its wings is covered; its whole demeanour
besides is far from expressing the pride and dignity of eagles and
falcons.

975. I have repeatedly seen the statement made that where there
is a scarcity of carrion, the Cathart&s preys upon living snakes, lizards,
birds, and even mammals. But as such a statement has never been
confirmed throughout a practically four years' residence in South
America, during which I have had opportunities often occupying hours,
even a day at a time, for watching the bird singly or in whole crowds
surrounded by numbers of lizards, birds, etc., the layman is quite
justified in doubting the statement of the ornithologists. As a matter
of fact, even when the curling columns of smoke of a burning savannah
attract hundreds of eagles and other birds of prey to seize upon the
lizards, snakes and smaller mammals escaping as 'quick as lightning
from the unloosened element, the Cathartes, greediest of all the birds,
will never be noticed among the band of brigands.

976. The Cathartes is protected by law throughout almost the whole
of South America, and in British Guiana a fine of $50 is inflicted upon
anyone daring to kill one* ; the reason is that the streets and yards
cannot be kept cleared of dead and putrefying animal matter by any
better sanitary police measures than by the greed of these birds. As
a result of this universal protection they have become so bold, I might
almost sav, tame, that every newcomer takes them for domestic
animals when he sees them perched often half the day upon the houses,
fences and trees in indolent repose with dependent wings which they will
leisurely outspread during and immediately after rain.

977. Were the Cathartes really to prey on living animals, the
Negress, so apprehensive of her young poultry, would surely not let it
roost quietly in the neighbourhood of her fowl-house: for with the
approach of any other bird of prey, everybody, poultry as well as the
crowd of black females, immediately gets into such a state of excitement
and commotion as to scare away the daring thief with all their screams
and uproar.

978. As already stated, one will search in vain for a Cathartes
amongst the crowds of birds of prey that swarm over a burning
savannah ; it circles round the burnt-off patch only on the day after the
fire, in often countless numbers, to consume the snakes, lizards, etc.,
overcome by the heat and moisture that have been despised by the
others. I was myself at first deceived on several occasions, when, on
watching a bird that in the distance I took to be a carrion; crow, I saw H

* The Ordinance was repealed only some few years ago. (Ed.)

PROVIDES AMUSEMENT FOH THE INDIANS. 363

chasing snakes, until I found on closer inspection that it was another
and larger bird of prey.

979. It is just as incorrect and false for some ornithologists to
maintain that the Cathartes only starts consuming a dead animal after-
it has gone putrid, a condition which at all events under the tropical
sun here, occurs quickly enough as it is; the smell of the fresh meat
appears to be just as attractive as that of the carrion, and judging from
the greed with which the bird swallowed the former at Pirara, it must
be considered just as tasty as the latter.

980. We found similar numbers also on the savannahs of the Takutu
and of Fort Sao Joaquim, where large herds of cattle are wont to
graze. If of a morning we left our camp, or the spot where we had
breakfasted, the birds gathered in a trice even out of the almost
invisible heights, from every direction, to consume the remnants. When
the latter is small and scanty it generally gives rise to the most violent
strife; if, on the contrary, it happens to be plentiful, there is no cause
for contention and brawl, and the birds gorge their crops and maws
with such quantities of large chunks that, no longer able to fly, they
remain helpless on the ground. Should they be surprised when in this
condition, and the danger is imminent, they finally resort to the one and
only method of escape, to wit, they disgorge, and fly away relieved.
Most of the observations as to the Cathartes aura being attracted just as
rapidly by the smell of fresh as by putrid meat, were made by myself
en route. No sooner had I shot a mammal or a bird and skinned it, than
some of the gluttonous birds drew near and consumed the carcass that
I had flung aside.

981. Our Indians amused themselves over and enough at the places
where we rested by fixing a piece of meat on a hook and then casting
it towards them. No sooner was this done than the greediest and
smartest of the Cathartes would be struggling on the line, when it would
be transformed into a fantastic monstrosity by the mischievous
anglers, who usually decorated it with strange feathers which they
stuck on with soft wax, cut neck-frills and similar things, and after
crowning, sent it back to its own crowd amongst which their ghost-like
relative caused the greatest consternation and only too soon found itself
isolated and abandoned until such time as the borrowed plumes could
be removed, and its presence again tolerated.

982. One frequently finds the Caracara eagle associated with the
Cathartes ; like the latter it also feeds on carrion and is attracted by its
smell. It is a bold but very quarrelsome bird which is continually
fighting with the Cathartes for the best morsels at a meal.

983. However much its keenness of vision may contribute' to the
discovery of its prey, it seems to me that the Cathartes' chief guide is
its delicate olfactory sense. The statement that, owing t:, the tropical
trade- winds prevailing, the smell cannot be carried to the birds equally
and in all directions, because it would be borne on the current of air
always in one and the same course is just as unfounded. How often have
I noticed that while the higher layers of clouds were rolling from east

364 THE KING OF THE CARRION CROWS.

to west, an undercurrent of air was driving the lower-Imaging cloud-
masses exactly in the opposite or at least a different quarter of the
compass, it was of a morning, of an evening, and especially in the
neighbourhood of the larger forests that this phenomenon particularly
took place; it certainly must spread in all directions the particular
smell of slaughtered or dead animals that is followed by the Gathartes,
which probably sniffs the atmosphere around for indications of the
presence of its meal until it is found. The bird is at the same time so
perfect at making skeletons that one might imagine the bcnes had been
cleaned most carefully of their flesh with a knife.

984. I never succeeded in finding their nests, which the Indians
say are built in crevices of the rocks and generally contain but two eggs.
On the coast, however, according to general report, they are built on the
ground in the sugafl cane fields. One to two months' old birds which
I found in an Indian settlement, had a covering quite like our young
geese and swans, except that the down was dirty white : their note exactly
resembled that of young swans.

085. I was able to confirm the extremely remarkable ;ii»d striking
phenomenon which now and again has been doubted, that the King
Vulture (V-ultur papa Linn.), the local King of the Carrion Crows, not
only demands royal honours and sovereign reverence, by some sort of
forced instinct as it were, but also receives the deepest respect from the
whole family of carrion-kites.

986. The Vultur papa is far from being as plentiful as the former,
and is always to be found solitary, except when some carrion happens to
attract several together, though even then the number does not exceed
from three to six. It generally attains the size of a turkey, in
connection with which the skin of its head and nape shines with the
most brilliant colours, which, unfortunately, completely fade at death.
Throat and nape are bright orange, the sides of the neck, from the ears
down, are on the contrary brilliant scarlet, a colouring also possessed by
the cartilaginous fleshy crest, while the portion of skin between the eyes
and lower chin, in the neighbourhood of the ears, slips in with a blue.
Surrounded with a red ring of skin, the eyes themselves are of a scarlet
colour, in which the brilliant white iris becomes all the more prominent.
The wrinkled portion of the skin is a dirty light brown which below and
behind the warts alternates with blue and scarlet. The beak itself is
coloured orange and black, while the cropx which is only outwardly
visible when full of feed, has a delicate white colouring interspersed
with blue veins. The tail and long wing-feathers are black, the body
and remaining feathers more or less white.

987, Though there may lie hundreds of Oathartes in full swincr over
a carcass they will immediately withdraw on the approach of the
Vultur papa. Seated on the nearest trees, or, when these fail, upon
the ground, they then watch with covetous and envious gaze until the
tyrant has satisfied his hunger and retired, which no sooner takes place
than they pounce again with wilder and enhanced greed upon their
forsaken meal to swallow the remnants disdained by him. This respect

£LAG TELEGRAPHS ARE SET tip.

and awe for the Vultur papa many travellers have reported of an eagle;
nevertheless, as I have very often been witness of this interesting
scene, I can affirm here that no other bird can boast of similar respect
and sacrifice on the part of the Cathartes.

988. The female of the Vultur papa is larger than the male, just
as she likewise differs in that, except for the white feathers undei-
the wings, she has an absolutely black plumage. In colouring, the
female almost exactly resembles the Cathartes foetens, for which reason
the two are often mistaken. According to our observations the females
must be much more numerous than the males. During the first year the
young males correspond entirely with the females as regards plumage
colour : in the second year they receive several white spots, until finally
in the third year, like so many other South American birds, they get
their proper covering and head and neck take on their mixture of
pigment. The purest pearl cannot be whiter than the iris of Vultur papa.
We were, unfortunately, unable to obtain any information as to their
breeding. They probably hatch only in the farthest remote and
loneliest spots or upon inaccessible rocks. In the neighbourhood of the
coast the Vultur papa seems to be more plentiful than in the interior,
where I have met with it pretty well down to the Equator, but always
only rarely.

989. The Macusis call it Cassaua; the Wapis.ianas Panaourau; the
Warraus, Wouraerepo. When rising for flight it always makes a great
noise with its wings. It often overeats itself to such an extent that it
cannot move. If the crop is full of food the bird diffuses an intolerable
smell of carrion ; if empty it is replaced by a strong odour of musk which
is also peculiar to the Cathartes aura and foetens. When the Vultur
papa has smelt out a carcase it does not resign itself immediately to
the feast, but first of all takes up a position at a little distance away,
upon a tree, or, if such be wanting, upon the ground where it dips its head
and neck deep down in between the wings and now and again casts a
look at the dainty meal: it is just as if it wanted to whet its appetite to
the greatest possible extent by such abstinence, for it is often only after
a quarter or half an hour that it gives full play to it. It is remarkable
further that the Cathartes withdraw immediately they see the Viiltur
approaching in the distance and make quite extraordinary gestures
with their heads at one another directly it really appears. They seem to
be welcoming their master in due form: at least, it was thus that I
explained the ducking up of their heads and the flapping of their wings.
As the King of the Vultures sets to work, they sit absolutely still and
watch him feeding with yearning craws.

990. In order to establish easy and rapid communication between
the village, i.e., the members of the Boundary Commission and the
occupants of the Fort, flag-telegraphs which, according to Captain
Marryat's system, are now customary on all British ships, had already
been set up in both places. In this way we could quickly enter into
communication with one another, a convenience that might prove of
importance to both parties in the immediate future, because during the

366

last few days fairly disquieting rumours had spread abroad through the
agency of the Indian strangers who visited us. The Brazilians, it
seemed, were preparing for war; indeed, there were even troops already
on the way to Fort Sao Joaquim, which, in conjunction with its
garrison, were to seize Pirara and drive out the English. Though the
flags were certainly never employed for war signals, they were all the
more frequently utilised for mutual invitations, be it now for a dinner,
a hunting party, or something else of the same sort.

991. The season of the year was already too far advanced to allow
of us carrying out our original plan of travel, which was to follow the
course of the Cotinga and from there push on to the highest rise of the
Pacaraima Kange and its real point of junction with the Parima Range
of the Orinoco which, at the same time, forms the watershed between the
river system of the Orinoco, Esse'quibo and Amazon; the journey could
not be extended now to such a length, and so the source of the Takutu
came to be chosen as the aim and object of our present expedition.

992. Although Captain Leal, on his late visit, had promised the
Expedition to send a large corial as far as the mouth of the Pirara, so
that the instruments at least could be conveyed in this up the stream,
the vessel mentioned had not yet 'come to hand, and we could explain
its non-appearance by nothing else than that the rumours of the Indians
were not entirely without foundation, and that probably he no longer
had a free hand over his actions. The longer the delay the closer the
rainy season, and our journey had to be completed before its commence-
ment.

993. Our houses accordingly presented a busy appearance once
more. I had to expose the treasures I had gathered several 'imes again
in the sun, to put them away afresh, and to stack them in the driest
places. Then followed the packing up of the astronomical instruments
of the expedition, the provisions, kitchen apparatus and European tools :
for although the Indian understands how to make thousands of things
with the knife that he has either swapped or earned, cases nevertheless
only too often occur where, as we had learnt by experience, this is not
sufficient. With this baggage was now also included the articles of trade
and a quantity of rum for the Indians with whom we wer2 to come in
contact, and then my bibulous paper for drying the plants. 'All objects
were packed in tin cases and bags of ticking which, to prevent the water
getting in, were thickly smeared with tar and oil-paint. However
reluctant we were to consent to this matter of rum, it was nevertheless
one of the necessary evils, because it is the only infallible means of
making the assistance and services of the Indian available to the traveller.
If no knife or axe can tempt the lazy Indian out of his hammock and
induce him to, render some indispensable service, a glass of rum will
manage it. Comfort, together with every obstacle that previously
confronted him like an armed guard, must now yield to the mighty
Spirit : however great may be the labour demanded of him to earn it, he
cannot resist the temptation of the glass : whatever is asked of him, the
glutton now considers nothing too hard. If you promise an Indian a

PREPARATIONS FOR OUR JOURNEY TO THE TAKUTU, 367

glass of rum, but at the same time make him thoroughly understand you
haven't it with you at the present moment, but that he must come for it
here or there after the work stipulated for is finished, he will do what is
asked of him and put in yet another day's journey just to satisfy the
tickling of his palate.

994. As each carrier's load dared not exceed 60 lb., a lot of packages
had naturally to be made, and many an Indian was required 1o transport
it. Nevertheless these were obtainable, for all the settlements sent
their contingents, and every one was glad to come with us. Every
Indian who accompanied the expedition received per month from the
British Government "trade" to the value of six dollars, which he could
choose as he pleased, and which was paid to him on completion of every
journey or on performing the distance lie was hired for, because we had
learnt by experience that the child of the forest does not consider
himself in any way bound by an advance of pay to complete the contract
agreed upon.

t>vo. a. wanted six Indians i'orouy bag and baggage : but to have given
eacn of tneni six dollars7 worth of trade monthly, out of niy small means
which tlie journey to 1'irara had already completely swallowed — my
brother had long ago seriously blamed nie for it — was ;c matter or
absolute impossibility, and 1 accordingly had to look alter my own
interests in some other way. After the Indians had been hired for the
Boundary Expedition there were still to be found many willing hands on
the market waiting for a master to engage them. I then came forward
with iny proposal. Like a wise housekeeper I had divided my trade
for this and the next expedition. The portion for the present one I
again divided into six parts, exposed them in the open, outside the house,
and now asked, ".Who will come with me for this, and this, and this
heap, under such and such conditions?" and look here, I soon had six
willing companions, who certainly did not receive a fourth part
of what awaited their remaining fellow-travellers, but who yet
served me_ with the same fidelity and sacrifice without ever giving ex-
pression to a grumble, growl or grudge at the others. This and many
another are traits of character which compensate for many a dark spot
in their lives and have made the honest-hearted fellows beloved and
dear to me.

996. On the last night but one prior to departure iiot only I
but also the occupants of the Fort were wakened from sleep by several
gunshots. We already imagined the fort and Pirara to have been
surprised and in the hands of the Brazilians, until it was found that
one of the stranger Indians had died. As Mr. Youd had given the
strictest orders forbidding any burial of the dead in their houses, and
was keeping equally strict watch that the Piai should not play his games
again, the body was carried in the morning to the burial-place situate
in front of the village, although the deceased in no sense belonged to the
zealous missionary's congregation, he having come here with his family
only out of curiosity to see the white people.

997. The two adult sons carried their deceased father in his hammock
to the cemetery, while the wife and daughter followed with fruit, bone^

868 fitJKlAL OF A STRANGER I

several thongs, and a flask tilled with water. I joined Mr. Youd, who
did not seem to be over-confident that his orders would be obeyed unless
he himself were present at the funeral. As we reached the spot, the two
sons were digging the trough-like grave, but the wife and daughter were
sitting on each side of the corpse and in a whining tone singing those
peculiar affecting and monotonous songs of lamentation, till the while
that they carefully drove away every insect that settled on the body,
and when the sun cast its rays upon the face, covered it with some twigs.
After the sons had completed their labours the grave was lined with
palm-fronds and the corpse placed in an almost sitting position with
the head to the west. For his future use they supplied him in the grave
witli the objects brought along by the wife and daughter, to which was
also added a drinking cup and his knife. The man had died in a high
fever, and being naturally continually tormented with thirst he had
bidden his people shortly before his death to give him a flask full of water
in the grave, so that he might quench his thirst on the long journey to
his friends who had gone before. His relatives gave him the strips of
leather to tie the Kanaima to a tree with, should he chance to meet him
on the way, for this individual likewise here was the cause of the death.
After the corpse had been carefully covered with palm-fronds, the grave
was closed in to the accompanying din of howling grief and a large fire
lighted on top ; the hammock was not burnt as at Nappi, but hung up on
a tree close by, where it would rot into pieces. Several half -tattered
hammocks, hanging from the neighbouring trees, whence they swayed
hither and thither in the wind, indicated the presence of several bodies
already buried here.

998. Although for a long time past it had been a lively wish of mine
to get hold of some skulls and skeletons for the Anatomical Museum in
Berlin, the love and respect which the Indians pay to the remains of those
departed, as well as their conviction that it is a very serious crime to
disturb the latter, had pi even ted my gratifying it even up to the present.
The custom of burying the dead in the houses made a nocturnal robbery
impossible, but in Mr. Youd's arrangements an opportunity now offered
itself of gaining my object on our return from Boraima. The habit
adopted at every occurrence of a death, as soon as the relatives own a
gun, of notifying the &ame to the inhabitants with three shots has lieen
learnt by the Macusis from the coloured people on the

[End of Volume One.]

INDEX TO VOLUME 1. *

Aberisto, the Brazilian, 860.

Acacia Westiana DeC., 781.

Acanthaceae, 623.

Acara margarita Heckel, 889.

Accouchement, 437-9.

Achras sapota Linn. Sapodilla, 116.

Acra-mucra Falls, 763, 766.

Acrocomia sclerocarpa Mart., 898, 920.

Aeneas, 301.

Aernauta Leilus, 301.

Aernauta Nestor, 241, 301.

Aeschynomene, 218.

Aeschynomene ciliata Vog. 725.

Aeschynomene coccinea Linn. See Sesbania grandiflora.

Aeschynomene grandiflora Linn. See Sesbania grandiflon.

Aeschynomene nmcromilata Bcnth. 839.

Aeschynomene paniculata Willd. 707.

Aeschynomene sensitiva Swartz, 707.

Agamia agami Gm., (Ardea agami Linn.}, 337.

Agave, 362.

Agelaeus icterocephalus Linn. (Icterus i. Baud.) 201, 243.

Agricultural Union, Georgetown, 109.

Aguti. See Dasyprocta.

Aharo Falls, 710.

Akaiwanna Range, 751.

Akawai or Waika, 530-1, 536.

Akee (Blighia sapida), 237.

Alcedo, 778.

'Alcedo amazona. Sec Ceryle a.

Alcedo Americana Linn. Gm. 719.

'Alcedo bicolor See Ceryle inda.

Alcedo superciliosa. See Ceryle s.

Alcedo tortinata. See Ceryle t.

Allamanda Aubletii Pohl. 300, 391.

Alligator, 376. See Kaiman.

Alligator punctulatus Spiv. 244.

Alpinia latifolia Willd., 898.

Alsodeia laxiflora Benth. 784.

Amasonia erecta Linn. 839, 863.

Amazon Parrot. See Psittacus pulverulentus.

Amazona aestiva Linn. (Psittacus aestivus Linn.) 313, 326, 445.

* The numbers refer to the Sections,

370 Index to Volume I.

Amazona farinosa Bodd. ( Psittacus pulverulentus Gw.) Amazon

Parrot, 326, 633.
Ainpelis (Cotinga), 339.
Ampelis cayana. See Cotinga c.
Anipelis carnifex Linn,. See Phoenicocercus.
Ampelis rubricollis. See Querula cruenta.
Amphyinenium Rohrii Hiunb. Bonp., 708.
Ampullaria guianensis Spix. 887, 896.
Ampullaria papyracea Spiv. 887, 896.
Ampullaria urceus Fers. 529, 561.
Amucu Lake, 862.
Amyris ambrosiaca Willd. 812, 918.
Anableps tetrophthalmus, Four-Eye, 291.
Anacardium occidentale Linn. Cashew 188.
Ananas edulis. Pine-apple, 116, 241, 304, 314-5, 727, 730.
Anas, 846.

Anas autumnalis. See Dendrocygna discolor.
Anas brasiliensis Linn., 866.
Anas moschata. See Cairina m.
Anas viduata. See Dendrocygna v.
Anchises, 301.
Anchises phorbanta, 241.
Andira inermis Hurtib. Bonp., 701.
Andira laurifolia Benin., 758.
Anodus alburnus Mull. Trosch, 889.
Anodus ciprinoides Miill. Trosch., 889.
Anona niuricata Linn. Soursop, 116.
Anona squamosa Linn. Custard Apple, 116.
Ant, 392-3, 623-5, 643, 892.
Ant-bites for Rheumatism/ 343.
Ant eater, Giant. See Myrmecophaga.
Ant-hills, 854.
Antonia pilosa Benfh., 707.
Apeiba Tibourbou Aiibl., 893.
Apocyneae, 862.
Apron belt, 526, 531.
Ara. Macaw, 777.

Ara ararauna Linn. (Psittacus a. Linn.) 319.
Ara macao Linn (Psittacus m. Linn.), 319.
Arabian (Aroabisce) Coast, 281-5, 646.
Aramades cayana Mutt. (Crex melampyga) 201,543.
Arapaima gigas Cuv. (Sudis g. Cuv.) 807, 826, 832.
Arawak, Manners and Customs, etc., 592-9.
Arawak, Physical characteristics, 592.
Arawak, Spanish, 618, 620.
Ardea, 759, 778, 846.
Ardea agami, Se.e Agamia agami.
Ardea brasiliensis, See Tigrosoma b,
Ardea cocoi, Heron, 703,

Index to Volume I. 371

Ardea coerulescens, See Florida coerulea.

Ardea leuce See Herodias egretta.

Ardea leucogaster. See Hydranassa tricolor.

Ardea nivea, See Leucophoyx candidissima.

Artlea scapularis, See Butorides striata.

Ardea tigrina See Tigrosoma lineatum.

Areca oleracea See Oreodoxa oleracea.

Arissaro Mts., 726.

Aristolochia, 514.

Aroids, 318, 320, 519, 611, 937.

Arowana, 'See Osteoglossum bieirrliosum..

Arrindell, Mr: afterwards Cliief Justice of the Colony 212-7.

Arrow-root, 116.

Artanthe apiculata, Klotzscli,, 756.

Artanthe corylifolia, Klotzscli, 756.

Armstrong, Missionary 252.

Artesian Wells. 133-141.

Artocarpus incisa Linn. Bread-fruit, 116, 200, 233-9.

Artocarpns integri folia I Ann. Appears to be confused with the preceding.

Amndinocola leucccephala Linn. (Muscicapa 1. Tern.) Parsonjbird, 201.

Arupa Cassava-press, 330, 693.

Asacota Village, 588.

Asclepias curassaviaca Linn. 154, 200.

Aspasia, 846.

Aspidium gongyloides, Kl. 614.

Aspidosoma maculatum (Lampyris phosphorea Linn. 69).

Astrocaryum, 268, 581, 929 A.

Astrocaryum gyriacanthum Mart. 759..

Astrocaryum Jaiiari Mart. Sawari palm, 772.

Astrocaryum tucuma Mart., 862.

Astrocaryum vulgare Mart, 759.

Astronomical Society, Georgetown, 109.

Astrophea glaberrima Klotzsch, 863.

Atta cephalotes, 623.

Atticora fasciata Gm. (Hirundo f. Lath.) Swallow, 478, 703.

Aurime Bight, 779.

Aurora, Pin., 647.

Avicennia, 350-1.

Avicennia nitida Linn., 57, 284.

Avicennia tomentosa, 284.

Avocado Pear. See Persea gratissima.

Awarikuru, 84.^-6.

Awarra Village. 893.

Babracote, Barbecue, Sec Meat, smoked.

Bach, Mr., Coffee-planter, botanist, etc., 148, 678, 680, 882,

Bacopa aquatica, Aubl, 320, 708, 852,

Bactris 268, 789, 929 A,

372 Index to Volume 1.

Bactris acanthocarpus Mart., 494, 514, 581.

Bactris concinna Mart., 908.

Bactris mitis Mart., 898.

Bactris pectinata Mart., 759.

Bactris tomentosa Mart., 759.

Baducca dance, 872.

Bagassa guianensis AuM., 701.

Bagrus mesops, Sec Sciadeichthys m.

Balsams, 65.

Banab, Benab, a temporary shelter, 720 et seq.

Banana, See Musa sapientum.

Bands worn on calves, etc., 658, 775.

Banking Institutions, Georgetown, 110-1.

Barabara Kiver, Flora of, 610-21.

Barima Basin, Flora of, 514-28.

Barimani Kiver, 578.

Bark shirts, 880.

Barreria theobromaefolia, Willd.. 701.

Bartica Grove Mission, 251-9, 651-2, 661.

Basico, Chief of Pirara, 855.

Baskets, Boxes, 397, 547, 599, 802.

Bauhinia, 65, 218.

Bauhinia macrostachya, BentTi., 839.

Bays, Bights, Kirahaghs (Lingoa Geral), 778.

Beara Kiver, 581.

Beetles, 336.

Begonias, 300.

Beliefs, Religious. Warrau, 453-60.

Belonopterus Cayennensis Gm. , (Charadrius c.) 887.

Bell-bird. See Chasmarhynchus.

Belly-ache, Dry, 649.

Bentham, Prof., 26.

Bernau, Rev., 251.

Besleria coccinea, Aiibl., 320.

Bete Rouge, Trombidium sp., 339.

"Betyllus sp., 542.

Beyrichia ocymoides CJiamiss. Sclilcht, 708.

Bklens bipinnata Linn.

Bifrenaria, 584, 611, 846.

Bifrenaria longicornis LindL, 392.

Big Bills See Rhamphastidae.

Bignonia, 65, 694, 725, 919.

Bignonia alba, 391.

Bignonia chica Huml., 547, 659, 800.

Bignonia heterophylla Willd., 391.

Bignonia incarnata, 391.

Bill-birds See Rhamphastidae.

Bingham, Lieut., 847.

Ash, Sec Quassia amara,

Index to Volume 1. 373

Bixa orellana Linn. (Ruku), 488, 547, 659.

Bleclmuin angustifolium Willd., 614.

Blighia sapida, Akee, 237.

Blowgun, 914-5.

Boa inurina (Eunectes murinus Wagl.) Comudi, 570, 572 846

Body painting, 550, 658.

Bombaceae, 898

Bombax ceiba, 383.

Bombax globosum, 242, 318, 383, 768, 914.

Botanical Society, Georgetown, 110.

BowditcMa, 862.

Bradypus tridactylus, Sloth, 379, 380, 656.

Brassavola, 949.

Brassavola augustata Lindl., 392.

Brassia lanceana, 392.

Brassia macrostachya Lindl., 392.

Bread-fruit, See Artocarpus.

Brett, Eev., 304.

Brigade, The Georgetown, 145.

British Museum, London, 22-3.

Bromelia, 846, 898.

Bromelia Karatas. See Karatas.

Brosimum, 914.

Brosimum Aubleti. See Piratinera.

Brotogerys taipara Linn. (Psittacus t. Linn.) 201.

Brownea racemosa Jacq., Kose of the Tropics, 518.

Buccinum Miga Adans. 287.

Bucco cinerens Sec Monacha nigra.

Bucco tenebrosus See Chelidoptera t.

Buchnera lavandulacea, Chamss. 863.

Buchnera palustris Spreng., 852.

Buprestidae, 336, 553, 886.

Burial ceremonies, Macusi, 908-11, 996-7.

Burlingtonia, 584.

Bush, Lieut., 847, 881.

Bush-rope, Vine-rope, 515-6.

Butorides striata Linn. (Ardea scapularis III.) 201.

Buttneria ramosissima Pohl., 852.

Buttneria scabra Linn., 852.

Byrsonima, 854, 893, 930.

Byrsonima altissima De C., 494.

Byrsonima crassifolia Hutnb. Bonp., 839.

Byrsonima Moureila Loud., 839.

Byrsonima verbascifolia De C., 839, 863.

Cabbage, 116.

Cabbage Palm, See Oreodoxa oleracea.

Caberalli, Arawak Chief of Asacota, 395-8, 400-2, 470, 496, 527, 529.

37-4 Indent to Volume I.

Cacoucia coccinea Aubl,, 391, 493, 725.

Cactus, 862.

(Cairina moschata Lmn. (Anas m. Linn.) Muscovy duck, 357, 790, 823,

887.

Caladimn, 887.

Caladium arborescens, See Montrichardia.
Calandra palmarum. Sec Rhyncophorus.
Calathea, 330, 599, 898.
Calathea juncea, 669.
Calathea Intea, 669.
Catedonia, Pin., 6.°>5.
Callichthys, 822.
Callithrix sciurea, 8e$ Saimiri.
Calves and legs, Scars on, 597.
Calyphrantes obtusa, Benth., 725.
Calyptrion Aubletii Ging., 514, 727.
Calyptrion nitidum, 727.
Camara tiliaefolia, Benth., 839.
Cambori, Chief of Waraputa, 730.
Camp House, Georgetown, 100.

Campylopterus largipennis Bortd. (Trochilus campylopterus Linn.), 312.
Cancer cordatus, See Ucides.
Cancroma, 778.

Cancroraa cochlearia, Canoe-bill, 365.
Canoebill, See Cancroma cochlearia,
Canis Azarae, 927.

Canuku Ranges, Excursion to, Ch. IX.
Capouye Lake, 647.

Capreolus rufus, See Mazama americana.
Capreolus simplicicornis, See Mazama s.
Capsicum, 116, 304, 330.
Capuchin bird, See Coracina.
Caracamata seeds for Morocotu, 367.

Carapa guianensis 'AuW. Crabwood, 318, 446, 546-7, 569 701.
Carbo Lac. Osprey, 725, 759, 778, 846.
Carex, 839.

Caria-Caria Mission, 267, 271.
Cariacru paint, 547.
Carib settlement, Kaitan, 657-8.
Carib settlement on Rupunnni, 773.
Carica papaya, Linn. Paw-paw, 116. 304.
Carolinea princeps See Pachira.
Carrion Crow, Kite, etc., See Cathartes.
Caryocar glabrum Pers., 701.
Caryocar tomentosum Willd., See Pekea.
Cascalho, 302.
Casca pretiosa, 943.
Casearia brevipes, Benth., 854.

Index to Volume /. 375

Casearia earpinifolia Bcnth., 854.

Cashew, See Anacardiura.

Casiri, 545.

Oassava, 116, See Janipha.

Cassavai-bread drink, 462.

Cassia, 831, 854.

Cassia alata Linn., 154, 200.

Cassia bacillaris, Linn., 725.

Cassia calliantha Meyer, 200.

Cassia cultrifolia Meyer, 863.

Cassia fistula Linn., 153.

Cassia flexuosa Linn., 725.

Cassia latifolia Meyer,, 200, 725.

Cassia lotoides Huml). Bonp., 863.

Cassia moschata Huml). Bonp., 725.

Cassia nmltijuga Rich., 153.

Cassia occidentalis Linn., 154, 200.

Cassia prostrata Linn., 863.

Cassia undnlata Benth., 893.

Cassia venenifera Kod, 200.

Cassia viscosa Huml). Bonp., 893.

Cassicus cristatus Daud., 507.

Cassicus haemorrhus Daud., Trupial, 243, 642.

Cassicus niger, See Ostinops.

Cassicus persicus Daud., Trupial, Mocking- Bird, 242-3, 642.

Cassidea, 336.

Catasetum, 611, 846.

Catharista, See Cathartes.

Cathartes atratus Bartr. (C. foeteiis III), 200, 972-4.

Cathartes aura III, 200, 777, 864, 972-84.

Cathartes foetens, See C. atratus.

Cattle, Wild, 864.

Cattle, Wild, catching and killing, 874.

Cattleya superba Schomb., 763, 831, 846.

Cauliflower, 116.

Cavella, 49.

Cayanus indicus Spr,. Pigeon-Pea, 116, 200.

Cebus appella, 788, 792.

Cebus capucinus, 788, 792.

Cecropia peltata Linn., Trumpet tree, 490, 513, 520, 768.

Cedar, See Icica altissima.

Cedrela odorata Linn., 701.

Centifolia, 65.

Centropyx, 854.

Cephaelis involucrata Willd., 541.

Cephalopterus, 879.

Cerambicidae, 886.

Cerchneis sparveria Linn. (Falco sparverius Linn.}, 854.

Ceremonies, Master of the, 558.

376 Indeiff to Volume L

Cereus hexagonus Haw., 862.

Cereus pentagonus Haw., 862.

Ceryle amazona Lath. (Alcedo a. Lath.), 719.

Ceryle inda Linn. (Alcedo bicolor Linn. Gm.), 301, 719.

Ceryle superciliosa Linn. (Alcedo s. Linn)., 301, 719.

Ceryle torquata Linn. (Alcedo t. Linn. Gm.), 479, 719, 759.

Chaetobranchus flavescens HeckeL, 889.

Chamaedorea pauciflora Mart., 898.

Cliamaepelia passerina Linn. (Colnmba p. Linn.), 864.

Chamaepelia mfipennis G.R.Gr. (Colnmba rufina Tern.), 769, 864.

Chamaepelia talpaooti Tern. (Colnmba t. Tern.) 864.

Charadrius. 290

Charadrius cayennensis, See Belonopterus.

Chasmarhynchos carunculatus, See C. nivens.

Chasmai'liYiiehos nivens Bodd. (C. carunculatus) Bell-bird, 774, 891.

919, 921.

Chelidoptera tenebrosa Pall. (Bucco tenebrosus Gm.) 747.
Chelys fimbriata, Matamata, 747.
Chenopodium anibrosioides Linn., 200. -
Chiefs, See Basico, Caberalli, Cambori, Clementi, Irai-i, Jan, Mana-

wari, William.

Chiefs, Staff of Office, 306, 523.
Chigoe, See Pnlex penetrans,
Chironectes, 204

Chomelia angustifolia Benin., 708.
Chorineus, 241.

Chrysobalanus pellocarpus Meyer, 725.

Chrysolampis mosquitus Linn. (Trochilus inoschatus Lath.) 201, 312, 864.
Chrysophyllum cainito Linn., 116.
Churches in Georgetown, 103. '
Cichla, 808.
Oichla ocellaris Bloch (Cichla argus Huml).) Luganani, Sunfish, etc.

721, 880.

Ciconia maguari, 887.
Cicadas, 69, 336, 886, 922.
Cissampelos, 929 A.
Clay for Pottery, 659.

Clementi, Warrau chief of Warina, etc., 497-506, 509-11, 523, 527, 567.
Cleome pentaphylla, Spinach, 116.
"Cleopatra," Barque, 31.
Clerodendrum, 65.

Clerodendrum inerme Wall, 152, 218.
Clibadium asperum De C., 781.
Clidemia agrestis Don., 541.
Clidemia elegans Don. 725.
Cliff, The. Now known as The Klip, 649.
Clinogyne dichotoma Salisb. (Marauta ramosissinia Wall.) Arrowroot,

116.

Indeat to Volume I. 377

Clitoria, 65.

Clitoria Poiteaui, De C., 391, 727.

Clusia, 260, 518, 930, 939.

Clusia insignis Mart., 391.

Cnemidophorus, 854.

Coast-line, Changes in, 629.

Cocoa-nut, See Cocos.

Cocos nucifera, 57, 65, 116, 640, 701.

Cock-Fighting, 179-81.

Cock-of-the-Rock, Sec Bupicola.

Coecilia annulata. Two-headed Snake, 625.

Coelogenys paca Cuv., Laba, 204, 418.

Coereba cyanea I Awn. (Nectarinea c. III.}, 339.

Coffea calycina, Benth., 781.

Coffee planting, etc., 679. •

Coleoptera, 906.

Colocasia esculenta Schotti., 116.

"Coloured" People, 163.

Coluber pantherinus Daud. Tiger-snake, 934.

Coluniba rufina. See, Chaniaepelia rutipeunis.

Columba talpacoti. Sec Chaniaepelia t.

Combretum. 260.

Combretum aurantiacuni Benth. 727.

Combretum laxum AuM. 493, 514.

Commelineae. 623.

Commianthus Schoniburgkil Benth., 839.

Compositae. 623, 862.

Comudi.^ee Boa.

Comuti or Taquiari Range. 753.

Conocarpus erectus Jacq. 284.

Convolvulaceae. 862, 893.

Convolvulus batatas, See Ipomoea b.

Convolvulus guianensis AuM.., 541.

Copaifera pubiflora Benth., 784.

Coracina calva. See Gymnocephalus.

Corchorus argutus Humb. Bonp., 852.

Cordia, 154, 541.

Cordia hirsuta Wtild., 200.

Cordia Schomburgkii Benth., 200.

Corials, 382, 383, 384.

Coryanthes macrantlia Hook, 392, 611.

Coryauthes maculata Hook, 392, 611.

Cotinga, See Ainpelis.

Cotinga cayana I Ann. (Ampelis c. Linn.} 495.

Cotton-bird, Sev Muscicapa bicolor.

Cotton-tree, See Gossypium.

Oouepia comosa Benth., 708.

Couratari guianensis Aubl., 318.

378 Index to Volume /.

Court-day for the Indians, 601-7.

Ooutoubea minor Hnmb., 541.

Coutoubea ramosa Aubl., 863.

Coutoubea reflexa Benth., 852, 888.

Coutoubea spicata Alibi., 541, 781.

Crab, 575.

Crab-oil, See Carapa.

Crax alector Tern.. Hokko-hen. Powis, 339, 501.

Crax tomentosa, Hokko-hen, See Mitua t.

Crenicichla, 808.

Crenicichla lugubris Heckel, 652.

Crenicichla saxatillis Heckel, 889.

Creole, 162.

Creole Dutch , 161.

Crepuscularia, 886.

Crescentia. cnjete Linn, 455-6, 489, 773. '

Crex melampyga, See Aramades.

Crex mustelina, Ffc Porzana,

Crickets, 69.

Crinum, 300, 392.

Crossing-the-Line on the voyage out, 50.

Crotalaria glabra Willd. (?C. retusa Linn.), 154, 200.

Crotalaria stipularia Dcsv.} 839.

Crotophaga ani Linn. Old Witch, 201.

Crytocarya pretiosa Mart.., 943.

Crypturus tao, Sea Tinanms t.

Crj^pturus variegatus, 339, 353.

Cubaea paniculata Willd., 541.

Cucurbitaceae, 768.

Cullen, Missionary, 617, etc.

Cumaka village and environs, 302-321, 471.

Cuphaea micrantha Humb. Bonp., 888.

Cuiassawaka Mt., Ascent of, 917.

Curatella, 862, 929 A.

Curatella ainericana Linn., 820, 839, 854.

Curculia, 336.

Curculionidae, 886.

Currency, 112.

Curua Mission, 858.

Cushy ant, See, Atta cephalotes.

Custard -apple, See Anona squamosa.

Cyanerpes coeruleus Linn. (Nectarinia coerulea III.) Honewbird, 339,

553.

Cyathea aspera Swartz, 768.
Cyperus, 839..
Cyrtopodiae, 896.
Cyrtopodium Andersonii, R. Brown, 763.

Indco) to Volinnv /. 379

Dacnis cayana Linn. (Sylvia cyanocephala Lath.), 339.

Dalton, Miss, 156.

Dance, Music, etc., 407-8.

Dasyprocta aguti III. Aguti, 204, 418, 782.

Decorations, 553.

Deer, 376.

Deguelia scandens 'Aubl., 758.

Delphinus delphis, 46.

Demerara River, Arrival at, 56.

Demerara River, Average current of, Cl.

Dendrocolaptes guttatus, See Dendrornis guttatoides.

Dendrocygna discolor Sell. (Anas autunmalis Linn.) 363, 495, 823.

Dendrocygna viduata Linn. (Anas v. Linn.), Vississi duck, 823..

Dendrornis guttatoides Lafr. (Deudrocoloptes guttatus Licht.) 339.

l)epilatiou; 322, 592.

Deroptyus accipitrinus Linn. (Psittacus a. Linn.) Hiu-Hia parrot,

326, 777.

Desman thus, 825.
Desmoncus, 929A.

Desmoncus macroacanthos, 898, 920.
Desmoncus polyacanthos Mart., 789, 898, 920.
Dialium divaricatum Vahl., 701.
Diamond beetle. See Buprestidae.
Dichorisandra aubletiana Schult., 494.
Dicotyles, 787.
Dicromena, 839.
Didelphys, 204, 521, 727.
Dioclea guianensis Benth., 707. .
Dioclea lasiocarpa Mart., 707.
Dioscorea alata Linn. Yam., 116.
Dioscorea bulbifera Linn , 314.
Dioscorea sativa Linn. Yam., 116, 314.
Diospyros paralea Steud., 701.
Diptera, 906. •

Diseases prevalent in Georgetown, 105.
Dogs, 539, 933.
Dolium fasciatum Lain., 287.
Dolphin, Sea-hog. See Delphinus.
Dracontium, 320.
Dracontium dubium Kth., 927.
Drepanocarpus inundatus Mart., 708.
Drinkino- Feast, 555-61, 568. See Intoxicants.
Drum, 482.
Duck, 290.
Duraquarra. /S'ee Ortalis.

Ear-boring, 445.
Earthenware. See Pottery.

380 Index to Volume I.

East Indians as Immigrants, 92.

Ecclesiastical and Keligious Institutions in Georgetown, 142-3.

Echites, 260.

Echites coriacea Bentli., 863.

Echites grandiflora Willd., 514.

Echites insignis Spix., 727.

Echites lucida Humb., 514.

Echites macrophylla Humb., 514.

Echlin, Dr., Artist to the Expedition, 211, 275, 347, 373.

Ecphyinotes torquatus. See Tropidurus.

Education, Indian, 442-4.

Egret, White, 285, 355.

Eichhornia azurea Kunth., 154.

Elanoides furcatus Linn. (Falco f. Linn.), 319.

Electric Eel. See Gymnotus.

Elephantopus angustifolius 8w.f 863.

Elisabetha coccinea Schomb., 725, 758.

"Elizabeth" corial, 686, 699.

Emancipation of the Slaves, 86-9, 96.

Emys aniazonica (Testudo arrua Humb.) See Podocnemis expansa.

Emys tracaja Mart. ( Testudo Terekay Humb. ) See Podocnemis tracaxa.

Entada myriadenia Benth.,, 893.

Eperua falcata Aubl. Wallaba, 494, 639, 701.

Epidendrum, 369, 528, 846.

Epidendruni Schomburgkii lAndl., 300, 763.

Epidendrum umbellatum Lindl. } 392.

Erythrina, 65.

Erythrina corallodendron Linn. 153, 200, 635.

Erythrina speciosa And., 153.

Erythrinus unitaeniatus Spix., 899, 926.

Escobedia scabrifolia Ruiz (£ Pav., 863.

Essequibo District, Flora of, 707-8.

Essequibo Mouth, Islands at, 648.

Etiquette, Breaches of : by the author, 30.

Eugenia, 541, 623, 743.

Eugenia jambos Linn. (Myrtus j. Humb. Bonp.), 116.

Eugenia polystachya Richt., 781.

Eugenia Saltzmanni BentJt.. 758.

Eugenia Schomburgkii Benth., 781.

Eugenia subobliqua Benth., 708.

Eugenia vismiaefolia Benth. y 758.

Eunectes. See Boa.

Euphone chlorotica, 201.

Euphone rufiventris, 339.

Euphone violacea, 201, 339.

Euphonia cayennensis Linn. (Tanagra cayana Linn.), 339.

Euphorbia hypericifolia Linn. (Phyllanthus h.) 200.

Eupsychortyx Sonnini Tern. (Perdix cristata Lath.), 864.

Eurotium herbariorum Link., 339.

Eurypyga helias III. Sun-bird, 353, 501, 939.

Euterpe edulis Mart., 789.

Euterpe o^rucea Mart., Cabbage-palm, 116, 300, 351, 502, 529, 581,

Eve Leary Barracks, Georgetown, 100.
Exchange values amongst the Indians, 466.
Exorcism of dancing-ground, 407.
Expedition to Orinoco mouth, £h. IV.
Exports, Colonial, 118.
Eye Complaints, 325, 446, 510.

Falco cachinnans. See Herpetotheres c.

Falco furcatus. See Elanoides f.

Falco nudicollis. See Ibycter.

Falco sparverius. Seei Cerchneis.

Farainea longifolia Eentli, 784.

Fauna in Pirara neighboui hood, 864.

Ferns, 318, 320, 519.

Fernandezia, 611.

Ficus, 203.

Fish arrows and lines, 721.

Fish Poisons, 781.

Fish, Whipping for, 721.

Flamingo. Sec Phoenicopterus.

Floating Islands, 356-7.

Flora, Barabara Biver, 611.

Flora, Barima basin, 514-28.

Flora, lower Essequibo, 707-8.

Flora, Pirara neighbourhood, 862-3.

Flora, Savannah, 854-5.

Florenzo : Schomburgk's boy assistant, 274.

Florida coerulea Linn. (Ardea coerulescens Lath.} 290.

Florisuga mellivora Linn. (Trochilus mellivorus Linn.), 312.

Fluvicola pica Bodd. (Museicapa bicolor Gm.) Cotton- bird, 201,

Formica clavata. See Ponera c.

Fort Frederick William, 99.

Fort Island, 668.

Fort New Guinea, 890.

Four-eye. Sec Anableps.

Fowls and eggs, 943.

Fregata aquila Linn. (Tachypetes a. Vieill.) Frigate Bird, 54.

Frigate bird, Stfe Fregata.

Fryer, Mr. : the gentleman adventurer, 678, 697, 838, 843.

Fulda, 4.

Fusus mprio Lam., 287.

382 Index to Volume J.

Galbula flavirostris, 725.

Galbula grandis. See Jacamarops g.

Galeandra Baueri Lindl., 896.

Galeandra junca Lindl., 896.

Gardenia, 65.

Gardenia florida Linn., 152, 218, 640

Gaiis, Prof: the Astronomer, 3.

Genipa americana, Lana, 547, 658., 800.

Geological specimens, 924-5.

Geonoma, 789.

Geonoma acutiflora Mart., 898.

Geonoma laxiflora Mart., 898.

Geophagus jurupari Hcckel., 889.

Georgetown, Arrival at, 57.

Georgetown, Expenses of living, 70, 114.
Georgetown, General review, 98-120.
Georgetown, Prevailing diseases in, 105.
Georgetown, Social Life, 144, 160.
Gerardia hispidula Mart., 708.
Gesneriae, 923.
Giessen, 4.

"Giraffe," Steamship, 7.

Glascott, Marine-Lieut : 2nd in charge of the Expedition, 31 566.
Glossophaga sp., 694.
Gluck Island, 718.
Glutton, Big. See Tantalus.
Goatsuckers, 720.
Gomphia cardiosperma DeC., 820.
Gomphia glaberrima Beauv., 820.
Gomphrena globosa, 929.
Gongora, 584.

Gongora maculata Lindl. , 528.
Gongora nigrita Lindl., 528.
Goodall, Mr: the artist, 670, 774.
•Gossypiuni herbaceum. Cotton-tree, 197.
Goupia glabra Aubl., 318.

Government, Administration of Colony, 121-125.
Granadilla. Kce Passiflora.
Greenheart. Sec Nectandra.
Greenwich Park, Pin., 670, 693.
Grias cauliflora Linn., 116.
Gru-gru. Sec Calanclra.
Guaco Eumb. Bomp., 756.
Guadua latifolia Kth., 766.
Guatteria ouregou Dun., 701.
Guava. See Psidium.
Guettarda, 541.
Guiana, Historical Retrospect of, 75-9.

Index to Volume 1. 383

Guilielma, 248.

Guilielma speciosa, 701.

Gulo, 204.

Gustavia angustifolia Linn., 391.

Gustavia fa&tuosa Willd , 518, 825.

Gustavia pterocarpa Poit., 831.

Gnstavia urceolata Poit., 825.

Gypagns papa Linn. Vultur papa Linn. King Vulture, 985-9.

Gymnocephalus calvus Gm. (Coracina calva Tern.) Capuchin bird, 900.

Gymnotus electricus. Electric eel, 371.

Habenaria longicauda Hook., 893, 896.

Hair-cutting, 447, 598, 919.

Halieus brasilianus. See Phalacrocorax.

Hamlet, the cook, 309.

Hancock, Mr : the Secretary, 31, 677.

Hebu, Yawahu, etc., 453-7.

Hector protesilaus, 241.

Heliconiae, 311, 846, 898.

Helicteres althaeifolia Lam.., 839.

Helicteres guazumaefolia Hum~b. Bonp., 781, 863, 893.

Hemicarpha, 839.

Hemiptera, 336.

Henriettea succosa DeC., 541.

Herodias egretta G mel. (Ardea leuce. 777.), 290, 864.

Herons, 337.

Herpestes gratioloides Benth., 888.

Herpetodryas lineatus RcJilcfj., 569.

Herpetotheres cachinnans Linn. (Falco c. Linn.}, 864.

Heteranthera reniformis Ruiz., 356.

Hia-Hia Parrot. See Psittacus accipitrinus.

Hibiscus, 893.

Hibiscus bicornis Meyer, 200, 725.

Hibiscus Brasiliensis Linn., 200.

Hibiscus chinensis. See H. mutabilis.

Hibiscus esculentus Linn. Ochro, 116.

Hibiscus mutabilis Linn. (H. chinensis), 65.

Hibiscus rosa sinensis Linn., 65, 152.

Hibiscus spinifex Linn., 200.

Hieroglyphics. 'See Picture-writing.

Hippomane manicella Linn., 707.

Hirtella, 854, 903.

Hirtella eriandra Bcnth., 707.

Hirtella paniculata Sica-rtz., 707.

Hirtella racemosa Lain., 514, 541.

Hirtella rubra Benth,, 839, 863.

Hirundo fasriata. See Atticora f.

Hoho-hit, 405,

384* Index to Volume I.

Hokko-hen. See Crax.

Holoquiscalus lugubris S-w. ? (Icterus sericeus), 201.

"Home," schooner, 277, 286.

Honey-bird. See Nectarinia coerulea.

Horse-Racing. Sac Turf Club.

Hospitals in Georgetown, etc., 100, 104, 635, 678.

Houses, Indian, 430, 529.

Howler monkey. See Mycetes.

Huiya. See, Lacis.

Humboldt, 'Alex. v. ; Scientist and traveller, 48. '

Humirium floribundum Mart., 813, 918.

Humming birds, 27. 301, 355.

Huntleya violacea Lindl., 763.

Hnra crepitans Linn., 218.

Hurua. Sec Pithecia chiropodes.

Hutu -Hutu. Sec Prionites momota.

Hydranassa tricolor Mull. (Ardea leucogaster Wagl.} 290.

Hydrochaerus Capybara. Water-bass, 823, 904.

Hydrocyiiis Cuvieri Agass. ( Xiphostoma C. Spix), 808.

Hymenaea Oourbaril Linn., 318, 547, 918.

Hymenopliyllum polyanthos Swartz., 768.

Hypolytrum, 839.

Hyptis Parkerii Benth., 708.

Hyptis, recurvata Poit., 708.

Hyptis spicata Poit, 708.

Ibis albicollis. See Theristicus.

Ibis nudifrons Spix., 846.

Ibis, Red, 285, 293, 355.

Ibycter Americanus Bodd. (Falco nudicollis Daud.), 319, 864.

Ice-ships, 117.

Icica altissima. See Protium altissimum.

Icterus guianensis. See Leistes.

Icterus icterocephalus Daud. See Agelaeus.

Icterus sericous. See Holoquiscahis.

Icterus xanthornis Linn. Plantain bird, 201,243.

Iguana tuberculata Laur., 717.

Ilamikipang Mt., Ascent of, 937-953.

Immigration, 91/-4.

Indians, In Georgetown, 188-9.

Indians, Protection of, 131, 190-3.

Indians, Future of, 194.

Indians. Introduced diseases, 195.

Indians' dislike of Negroes, 164.

Inga floribunda Benth., 707, 758.

Inga platycarpa Benth., 707.

Inga sapida Humb. Bonp.} 707.

Index to Volume 1. 385

Intoxicants, 461-2. See Drinking Feast, Cassiri, Maize, Paiwari, Ite,

Potato-Drink, etc.

Intoxication, Indian Cnre for, 483-4.
lonopsis teres, 392.

Ipomoea batatas Poir (Convolvulus b.) Potato. 116, 314, 439.
Irai-i, Carib Chief of Warapnta, 736.
Iriartea ventricosa Mart., 898, 920.
Iron-stone, 302.
Tsertia coccinea VaJil., 541.
Islands, Floating, 356-7.
Islands, Floating at Esseqnibo Mouth, 648.
Tslas Ipomneena, 862.
Tsolepsis. 839.
Itaballi Cataract, 708.
Itabbos, 568.

Ite Palm, See Manritia flexuosa.
Txora, 65.
Txora coccinea Linn., 153.

Jacamarops grandis Gm. (Galbula g. Lath.) 725.

Jacana spinosa Linn. YParra jacana Linn.), 201, 642.

Jacaranda procera *Sf pr., 153, 725.

Jacaranda rhombifolia Mei/cr, 153.

Jaguar, 204, 929.

Jan or Yan, Chief of Arawaks and Warraus at Asecura, 412 6.

Janipha Loefflingii. Sec Manihot Carthagenensis.

Janipha manihot, Sec, Manihot utilissiiua.

Jasmine, 65.

Jasminium grandiflorum, 152.

Jonidium oppositifolimn Schult., 781.

Jose dos Santos Innocentes, Friar, 868.

Jungermanniae, 320, 528.

Jussiaea affinis DC C., 784.

Justice, Administration of. Colonial, 120 30, 132.

Justkia, 65.

Justinia coccinea J.W&Z.., 494.

Kabaura, See Siniulia.

Kaiuian, 778, 780. Sec Alligator.

Kaitan, Carib Settlement, 657-8.

Kanaima, 744-6.

Karatas Pluniieri Morr. Bronielia Karatas, 438.

Kew Gardens, London, 25.

King, Mr., Superintendent Barinia and Essequibo District, 246, 275, 372.

King Vulture, See Vultur papa.

Koch, Dr. : of Niiriiberg, 209.

Kyffhauser, Range of Hills in Thuringia, Germany, I.

386 Index to Volume I.

Kyk-over-all Island, 654.
Kyllingia, 839.

Laba, Sec Coelogenys paca.

Labaria, See Lachesis.

Lachesis atrox Linn. (Trigonocephalus a. Schleg.) Labaria, 371, -109,

669, 738.

Lacis fluviatilis Willd. Huiya, Weyra, 710, 762.
Lagunculaila racemosa Gaertn. 57, 284.

Lampornis gramineus Gin. (Trochilus pectoralis Linn.} 201.
Lampornis violicamla Bodd. (Trochilus mango Linn.) 312.
Lampyris phosphorea, See Aspidosoma maculatum.
Laua. Sec Genipa.
Language, Notes on, 596, 659.
Lantana camara Linn., 154.
Lams, 778.
Laulau, 721.
Lanrineae, 304, 318.
Leal, Captain : of Fort St. Joaquim, 868.
Lecythis, 318, 914.
Lecythis parviflora Aiibl., 494.
Leguminosae, 304, 318, 862.

Leistes guianensis Linn. (Icterus guianensis Briss.) 201.
Lemon Trees, 488.

Leonotis nepetaefolia 7?. Br.. 154. 200.
Leopoldinia, 248, 351, 355, 581.
Leopoldinia pulclira Mart., 300.
Leper Hospital, 635.
Lepidocaryum graeile, 581, 898.
Lepidoptera 886. 906.
Leporinus fasciatus Miill Trosdi. 889.
Leptolobium niteris Vogcl. 708.
Letter-wood, See Piratinera.

Leucophoyx candidissima G-in., (Ardea nivea Lath.) 201, 290.
L'heureuse Aventure, Pin.. 678.
Liberadina, Senora, 872.
Lieania aperta Benth., 784.
Licania coriacea Benth., 707.
Lieania divai'icata Banth., 707.
Licania floribunda Benth., 784.
Licania pendula Benth., 888.
Lichens, 318.
Light, Governor, 145.
Lighthouse Tower, Georgetown, 63, 100.
Limnanthenium Hurnboldtlumim Gruel), 888.
Limnocharis Humboldtii Rich., 154.
Lindley, Prof. : the Botanist, 26.
Lindsaya crenata Klotzsch, 768.

Indea to PO/MMO /, 337

Liadsaya divaricata Klotsuch, 768.

Lindsay a dubia &yrcn,yt 768.

Lindsaya gratis Klotztsvh, 768.

Lindsay a inoritziana Klotevvh, 708.

Lindsaya pendula Klotssvh, 7U8.

Lindsaya Itaddiaua Klotstsvh, 708.

Lindsaya reniforinis Dryund, 708.

Liudsaya Schoniburgkia Klutstsvh, 708.

Liudsaya stricta Dryand, 708.

Liudsaya trapeziforinis tialisb, 708.

Lisiauthus coerulesceus AubL, 320, 49 4.

Lisianthus gracilis Griesb., 725.

Lisianthus graudiflorus AubL, 541.

Lizard Eggs, etc., /See Iguana.

Loddiges: his Collectiou of Humming Birds, etc., 27.

Louchocarpus densiflorus Benth., 781, 889.

London, 18, 19.

Loranthus guianensis KL, 825, 852.

Loranthus Suiithii, tichomb., 825.

Loranthus theobromae Willd. (L. uniflorus Linn.), 644.

Loranthus uniflorus, $ee L. theobromae.

Loricaria cataphracta Linn., 822.

"Louise," Corial of Expedition, 686, 699.

Luganani. See Cichla ocellaris.

Lutra brasiliensis Ray, Water-dog, 770.

Lutra enudris Cuv., Water-dog, 770.

Lygodium volubile Swartz, 768.

Maam. See Tinamus.

Mabea pirini AubL, 541.

McClintock, the Postholder, 630-3, 881.

Machaerium leiophyllum Benth., 707.

Maehaerium nervosum Voycl, 707.

Machaerium Schomburgkii Bcntk., 831, 839.

Macrolobium bifoliuui Pcrs., 701.

Macro Jobiuni sphaerocarpuin Willd., 541, 701.

Macusi, 80Q'2.

Macusi lUirial Ceremonies, 908-911, 996-7.

Malm and Rupmiiini, Watershed between, 892.

•Maicerwari. /s'eto Murder charge.

Maiongkong, 879-80.

Maipuri. free Tapir.

Maize, 116, 315.

Maize, drink, 462.

Ma j eta guianensis, 541.

Malanea sarmentosa AubL, 707.

Malpighiaceae, 260, 862.

Malvaceae, 623, 862.

Mammea americana Linn., Mauiee Apple, 116.

Manari, 644.

388 Index to "Volume I.

Manicaria, 351.

Manicaria saccifera Gaertn. Truli palm, 248, 300, 302, 320, 638.

Manihot carthagenensis Mucll. (Jaulpha LoeiHingii. IIuntl>. Bonp.),

Sweet Cassava, 116. i

Manihot utilissiina Polil. (Janipha manihot Hiunlt. Bonp.) Bitter

Cassava, 116, 304, 314-7, 330-1, 529.
Mangifera indica Linn. Mango, 68, 116.
Mango. See Mangifera.
Mantle, Feather, 553.
Marantaceae, 311, 320.

Maranta arundinacea Linn. (M. indica Rose], Arrowroot, 116.
Maranta indica. Sec M. arundinacea.
Maranta raniosissima. See, Clinogyne.
Marawari. Warrau Chief of Honobo, 483-91, 573-4.
Marcgravia, 494.
Mar de aguas blancas, 862.
Marginella coerulescens Lam., 287.
Mariscus, 839.

Markets in Georgetown, Fruit and Vegetable, 116.
Markets in Georgetown, Meat and Fish, 113-5.
Marmoset. See Callithrix.
Marriage, Early, 323, 432-3.
Marryat's mother, Captain, 28.
Martia excelsa Benth., 725.
Marudi. See Penelope.
Master of the Ceremonies, 558.
Matamata. See Chelys.
Mauritia, 892-4.

Mauritia flexuosa Linn. Ite palm, "Tree of Life/' 463, 527, 810.
Maxillaria, 301, 369, 528, 584.
Maxillaria chlorantha Bot. Reg., 611.
Maxillaria cristata Lindl., 392.
Maxillaria foveata Lindl., 611.
Maxillaria graminea Lindl.,, 611.
Maxillaria porrecta Bot. Reg., 611.
Maxillaria puniila Hook, 611.
Maxillaria parkerii Hook, 611.
Maxillaria steelii, 696.
Maxillaria unciata Bot. Reg., 611.
Maximiliana, 248, 351, 581, 789.

Maximiliana regia Mart., 320, 701, 801, 898, 914, 928, 930.
Mazama americana (Capreolus rufus) 537.
Mazama simplicicornis (Capreolus s.), 537.
Mazaruni mouth, 654.
Meals, Warrau, 431.
Meat, Smoked, 430.
Medicine-man,, 452-9, 921-2.

Meidinger, H. Author of Travels in Great Britain and Ireland, 4.
Melastoma, 260, 623, 854, 893.

Index to Volume I. 389

Meliaceae, 65, 304.

Melicocca bijuga Linn., 115.

Melochia arenosa Bcnth., 70S.

Melochia gramnifolia tit. Hil., 888.

Melochia zanceolata Benth., 708.

Melvilla LindL, 888.

Menstruation, 447-8.

Mertensia pectinata Willd., 768.

Meteorological data, 565, 566, 653, 682-3.

Mica schist, 302.

Miconia (Melastoma Aubl.) alata DeC., 541.

Miconia attenuata De C., 541.

Miconia brevipes Bcnth., 893.

Miconia cilia ta De C., 863.

Miconia elata Betnth., 541.

Miconia laevigata Bcnth., 541.

Miconia longifolia, 541.

Miconia purpurescens, 541.

Miconia rac^mosa. 04.1

Miconia Schomburgkii Bcnth., 863.

Mikania denticulate DeC., 756.

Mikania raeemulosa Bcnth., 756.

Military Expedition, Arrival of: at Pirarn, 847.

Mimosa, 154, 200, 260, 358, 743, 854.

Mimosa floribnnda Willd., 893.

Mimosa guianensis Aubl., 318.

Mining Claims, Old Dutch, 660.

Min'quartia guianensis Aii~bl., 701.

Missions to Indians. See Bartika Grove, Caria-Caria, Cuma, Morocco,

Pirara, Pomeroon. Waraputa.

Mitna tomentosa Spix (Crax t. Spix) Hokko-hen, 904.
Mocking-bird. See Tassicus perseus.
Monacha nigra Miill (Rucco cinerens Gm.} 747.
Monachanthus, 922.
Monachan tlms discolor LindL, 392.
Monachanthus viridis LindL, 896.
Monkey, Howler. Sec Mycetes.
Monnieria trifolia Linn., 541.
Montrichardia aculeatum Criiro (Oaladium arliorescens Vent.) Mncu-

Mucu, 300, 639, 642, 670.
Mora Creek, 298-9.

Mora excelsa BtfntJi., 515, 517, 701, 725.
Morality, 461.
Morocco Mission, 617.
Morocco River, 616.
Morocotu. 'See Myletes sp.
Mosquitoes, 70, 343, 353, 359-61, 632-3.
Mosses, 318.
Mould in Collections, etc. See Enrotinm,

390 Index to Volume I.

Mucu-Mucu. Sec Caladium arborescens.

Mud banks on Coast, 629.

Mud-swimming, 293, 364.

Mugil sp. Querimanni, 367-8.

Mulatto and its mixture, 163-70.

Murder Charge, 419-28, 470.

Musaceae, 311, 320, 947.

Musa Cavendishii Paaton, 229, 954

Musa chinensis Sweet, 229, 944.

Musa paradisiaca Linn. Plantain, 62, 116, 227-9, 304.

Musa paradisiaca Linn, disease, 231-2.

Musa sapientnm. Banana, 68, 116, 229, 304, 920.

Muscieapa bicolor. See Fluvicola pica.

Muscicapa coronata. See Museivora regia.

Miiscicapa leucocephala. See Arundinocola.

Muscicapa tyrannus Linn., 864.

Muscivora regia G-m. (Muscicapa coronata Linn.), 864.

Music. Sfte Dance, Drum, Rattle, Reed -instruments, Violin.

Muscovy duck. See Anas moschata.

Myanthus, 611.

Myanthus barbatus 'LindL, 392.

Myanthus deltoides LiiuJJ., 392.

Mycetes senieulus. Howler-monkey. 353. 537-8, 681.

Myeteria 'Americana Linn., 819, 864, 887, 893.

Myletes sp. Morocotn. Osibu. 367, 569.

Myletes latus Miill Trnscli, 808.

Myletes pacu. See Myleus.

Myletes rubrip'innis Miill Trosch., 889.

Myleus pacu Sch. (Myletes p. Jard.), 710-2, 762.

Myleus setiger Mull TrosrJi., 889.

Myristica sehifera Sw., 541.

Myrmecophaga jnbata Linn., Giant Ant-eater, 394.

Myrodia longiflora Sw., 541.

Myrtaceae, 893, 939.

Myrtus jambos. See Eugenia j.

Myrtus Shomburgkii Klotzsch., 893.

Naikuripa Island, 656.

Nappi Village, 901.

Nasua., Kibihi, 204, 727.

Natica morochiensis Lam., 287.

Nattercr, Dr., Austrian traveller and naturalist, 26.

Navel-string, 438.

Nectandra Rodiei Schoinl., Greenheart, 529.

Nectarinia coerulea. See Cyanerpes.

Nectarinia cyanea. See Coereba.

Xegro. The. Characteristics of, 171-8, 185-6.

Negro Diseases, 187.

Index to Volume I. 391

Negro obstinacy, 574.

Nemosia nigrigula ? (Tanagra nigerrima Om.); 201, 339.

Ncurocarpum longifolium Mart., 863.

Xeurophyllnm pinnatum Presl., 768.

Newspapers, Georgetown, 108.

Norantea guianensis 4?/6/., 391, 404, 708, 725.

Nose-boring, 445.

Nn nil a rostrata, 287.
Number, Computation of, 465.
Numenins, 290, 778.
Nymphaea, 614, 616, 642.

Oak of the Tropics. Sec Mora excelsa.

Ochre, 302.

Ochro, Hibiscus escnlentus, 116.

Odontophorus gnianensis Gm. (Tetrae g.), 543.

Oenoearpus bacaba Mart., Turn, 320, 581, 937, 934.

Oenocarpus bataua. Turn, 898, 928, 934.

Oenocarpus minor, 898.

Oleander, 65, 640.

Oncidinm Baueri JAndL, 300, 392.

Oncidiiim iridifolium H umb. Kth., 369, 392, 611.

Oncidium lanceanum LindL, 392, 611.

Oncidiiim lunatum LindL, 392.

Ophiocaryon paradoxum Schomb., Snake-tree, 696.

Orange, 65, 116, 153, 200, 488.

Orchids, 318, 392, 519.

Oreodoxa oleracea Mart. (Areca oleracea Jacq.), Cabbage Palm, 57, 64-5,

116, 151, 248.

Orinoco, Expedition to mouth of, Ch. IV.
Oriole, 355.
Ortalis motmot Linn. (Pionites momota 7/7.) Hutu hutu, Hana'qua,

Duraquara, 355, 542-3.
Osibii. &cc Myletes sp.
Osprey. Sice Halieus, Carbo.

Osteofflossum bicirrhosum »Sf/)i,7?., rA.'rowann, 808, 889.
Osterbecke Point, 702.

Optinops decnmanus Pall. (Cassicus nigrr Dand.), 201.
Otter. >Sfrr Lutra.
Ouropocari Falls, 757-8.
Outea acaciaefolia Tlcntli, 725.
Owen, Professor, 24.

Pacaraima Range, 855.

Pachira aquatica Aubl. (Carolinea princeps Linn.), 260, 494,

Pacu. Fee Myletes.

Pacu nigricans Spitr., 889.

Paepalanthus capillaceus Klotzsch.j 839

392 Index to Volume I.

Paiwari, 462.

Pakaruima. See Phractocephalus.

Papilionaceae, 358.

Parivoa grandiflora AubL, Wallaba, 639, 701.

Paroaria gularis Linn. (Tanagra g. Linn.), 725.

Parra jacana. See Jacana.

Parrots, 355.

Parson-bird. See Muscicapa eucocephala.

Passiflora, Passion Flower and Fruit, 65, 260, 300, 514, 863, 019.

Passiflora coccinea, 391.

Passiflora ednlis (Probably an error for P. maliformis ? Linn.) Simitu.
Passion Fruit, 116.

Passiflora laurifolia 'Linn., Simitn. Passion Fmit, 116.

Passiflora quadrangularis Linn., Granadilla, 116.

Pavonia cancellata Car., 888.

Pavonia speciosa Huml). Bonp., 863.

Pavonia typhalaea Car., 725.

Paw-Paw. See Carica papaya.

Pectis elongata 'Huml) Bonp., 781.

Pekea tuberculosa Auhl. (Caryocar tomentosum Willd.) Sawari Nut.
650, 694.

Peltogyne paniculata Benth., 893.

Penal Settlement, 657.

Penelope cristata Tern. See P. jacupeba.

Penelope jacucaca Spi.T (P. parraca Tem.), 339.

Penelope jacupeba Splr. (P. cristata Tem.) Hokko-hon. Yakw, 339, 355,

501.

Penelope parraca. Sec P. jacucaca.
Penelope piipile. See Pipele.
Pepper-eater. Se$ Eliampliastidae.
"Pepper-Pot," 330.
Perdix cristata. Sec Eupsychortyx.
Peristeria pendula Hook., 392.
Persea gratissima Gacrt. Avocado Pear, 116, 200.
Petasopliora delphinae Less. (Trochilus petasophorus Pr. Max.), 312.
Peters, Rev. : of Caria-Caria Mission, 267, 271.
Petrea, 260.

Petrea macrostachya Benth., 784, 831.
Petrea volubilis Linn., 391, 727.
Petrocarya canipestris Willd., 701, 763.
Petrocarya coriacea Benth., 763.
Petrccarya montana Willd., 701.

Phaenicocercus carnifex Linn. (Ampelis c.), Fire-bird, 905.
Phaenicopterus ruber. Flamingo, 285, 290, 293. •

Phaethornis ruber Linn. (Trochilus pymaeus Spi$), 312.
Phalacrocorax brasilianus (Halieus b. III.). Osprey, 703.
Phaseolus lasiocarpus Mart., 725.
Phaseolus linearis Huml). Bonp., 839,

Index to Volume I. 393

Pliractoceplialiis bicolor. Sec P. hemilopterus.

Phractocephalus hemilopterus Bloch (P. bicolor Af/ass.), 721, 771, 832.

Phyllanthus eonami. Stv., 781.

Phyllanthus hypericifolia. Sec Euphorbia h. eonami

Phyllanthus niruri, 200.

Phyllostoma spectrum. Vampire, 604, 695.

Physalia utriculus, 49.

Phytolacca, 541.

Phytolacca decanclra Linn. Spinach, 116.

Piai, Piatsang, Pach6, etc. See Medicineman.

Piapoco. Sec Toucan.

Pickersgill, 640.

Picture-writings, 739-742.

Pigeon. Sec Columba, etc.

Pigeon Pea. Fee Oayanus.

Pine apple. Sec Ananas.

Pionites melanocephalus Linn. (Psittacus m. Lttw.), 313.

Pionites momota. See Ortalis.

Pionus maxiiniliana Linn. (Psittacus m. Kuhl.), 203.

Pionus monstruus Linn. (Psittacus m. Linn.)t 203.

Pipile cumanensis Gm. (Penelope pipile Lath.), 339.

Pipra, 923.

Pipra auiicapilla Licht., 572.

Pipra leucocilla Linn.f 572.

Pirai. See Pygocentrus, Pygopristis, Serrasalmo.

Pirara. Fauna, 864.

Pirara. Flora, 862-3.

Pirara Mission, 252.

Piratinera guiauensis Aubl. (Brosimnm Aubleti Poep. Endl.) Letter-
wood, 918.

Pitangus lie tor Licht. (Tyrannus 1.), 201.

Pitaugus sulphuratus Linn. (Tyrannus s. Vicill. Tyrannus flavus).
Que'st-ceique-dit, 64, 201. .

Pitcairniae, 922, 943.

Pithecia chiropodes Geoff. Hnrua monkey, 788.

Pithecia leucocephala. Sec P. pithecia.

Pithecia pithecia Litin.. (P. leucocephala), 788.

Pithecolobium pubescens Benth., 784.

Pithecolobium trapezifolium Bcnth., 707.

Plaiting, 599.

Plantain. Sec Musa paradisiaca.

Plantain bird. Sec Icterus xaiithornis.

Plantain disease, 231-2.

Platalea ajaia lAnn. Spoon-bill, 285, 290.

Platystoma tigrinum Vol. Tiger Fish, 758.

Pleurothallis, 611, 939.

Plotus, 759, 778, 846.

Plotus anhinga Linn. Snake-bird. Snake-neck, 298; 725,

394* Index to Volume I.

Pluinieria mollis. Humb. Bonp., 839.

Podiceps, 887.

Podocnemis expansa Schiv. (Emys amazonica Mart.), 716.

Podocnemis tracaxa Spits (Emys tracaja Mart.), 716.

Podostemeae 710.

Poinciana, 65, 218.

Poinciana pulcherrima Linn., 152.

Police chase, 687.

Polyborus caracara. See P. cheriway.

Polyborus cheriway Jacq. (P. caracara Spi-x), 854, 864.

Polygala, 893.

Polygala angustifolia Humb. Bonp., 863, 888.

Polygala appressa Benth., 852, 888.

Polygala camporura Benth., 863.

Polygala galicides Poir., 863.

Polygala hygrophylla Humb. Bonp., 808.

Polygala longicaulis Humb. Bonp., 852, 863.

Polygala molMs Humb. Bonp., 863.

Polygala variabilis Humb. Bonp., 852, 888.

Polygamy, 432-3, 598.

Pomeaco, 640.

Ponera clavata. Formica c. Biting Ant, 343.

Pomeroon Mission, 640.

Pomeroon Mouth, 634.

Population statistics, Colonial, 97.

Porphyrio nmrtinica. See Porphyriola in.

Porphyriola martlnica Linn. (Porphyrio m.), 201.

Portuguese Immigrants, 92-3.

Portuguese "Man of -War," 49.

Porzana albicollis V. (Crex mustelina), 201.

Posoqueria loiigiflora Anbl, 623.

Potato. Sec Convohmlus batatas.

Potato drink, 462.

Pothos, 320.

Pottery, 449, 599, 659.

Powis. See Crax. sp.

Procyon, 204.

Property of Deceased, 615.

Protium altissiinum March (Icica altissima 'AiibL), 383.

Psidium, 200, 743, 768, 862.

Psidium aquaticum Benth., 772, 825.

Psidium aromaticum Anbl., 772, 825.

Psidium pomiferum JAnn. Onava, 116, 203.

Psidium pyriferum Linu. Guava, 116, 200, 203.

Psittacula guianensis Rpi.r. (Pmttacus gregarins Rpi.r), 201.

Psittacula passerinus Linn. (Psittacus p. Linn.), 201-2.

Psittacus accipitrinns. See Beroptyus.

Psittacus aestivus. See Amazona nestivn.

Psittacus ararauna. See Ara a.

Index to Volume I. 395

Psittacus gregaiius. Sec Psittacula guianensis.

Psittacus macao. See Ara m.

Psittacus makawuanna Linn., 642.

Psittacus maximiliana. See Pionus m.

Psittacus monstruus. See Pionus m.

Psittacus nuchalis Linn.,, 313.

Psittacus passerinus. See Psittacula p.

Psittacus pulverulentus. See Amazona farinosa.

Psittacus taipara. See Brotogerys.

Psophia crepitans Linn. Trumpet-bird [Wnrraoabra], 501, 782. 004.

Psychotria, 541.

Psychotria violacea AuM., 320

Pteroglossus piperivorus. See Selenidera.

Pteroglossus viridis, 338.

Pulex penetrans. Chigoe, 325, 340 2.

Punica, 65.

Punishment, Corporal , 444.

Purpura cataracts Lam., 287.

Pypjocontrus. Pirai, 808.

Pygocentrus niger, 754.

Pygocentrus piraya, 754. •

Pygopristis denticulatus Cuv. (P. fumarius MH1L Trnsdi). Pirai, 754.

Pygopristis fumarius. See P. denticulatus,

Pyrophorus pellucidus Esch., 353.

Pyrula melougena Lam., 287.

Quassia, 65.

Quassia amara. Bitter Ash, 667.

Quay6 Eiver, 896.

Querimanni. See Mugil sp.

Querula cruenta Bodd. (Ampelis rubricolJis Tern.), 495.

Qu'est-ce-que-dit? Sec Tyranims sulphuratns.

Rain. Certain beliefs, 504, 509.

Rainy Season, Commencement of, 334.

Rapateae, 846, 898.

Rapatea paludosa Aubl., 320.

Rappu bambu, 766.

Rattle, 407, 455-8.

Ravenala guianensis /??>/» , 720.

Razor grass, 937.

Reading and Writing, 885.

Reed instruments, 405.

Religious Institutions, Colonial, 142-3.

Rhainphastidae. Big-bill. Bill-bird. Pepper eater. Piapoco. Toucan,

337-8, 355, 553.

Rhamphastus erythrorhynchus Linn.} 338, 879,
Rhamphastus toco, 338, 864,

396 Index to Volume I.

Rhamphastus vitellinus Linn., 338, 879.

Ramphocoelus jacapa Linn. (Tanagra j. Gm.)9 201, 339.

Rheumatism. Ant-bites for, 343.

Rhizoboleae, 304.

Rhizophora, 350-1.

Rhizophora mangle Linn., 57, 284.

Rhynchauthera dichotoma DeC., 614.

Rhynchophorus palmaruin (Calandra p.). Gni-gru, 500.

Rhynchops. Scissor-bill, 290, 725, 759, 778.

Ricinus communis, 541.

Ring, The : Afternoon Promenade, 151-155.

Ritchie : the Customs Officer, 39.

Rocks, Primitive, 566.

Rodriffuezia, 301, 584.

Rodriguezia secunda Uumb., 528.

Rodriguezia stricta Steud, 528.

Ropourea guianensis Aiibl., 541.

Rose, monthly, 65.

Rose of the Tropics. See Brownea racemosa.

Ross, Miss: the Georgetown beauty, 156, 213-7.

Rothwell, Captain : of the Cleopatra, 33.

Rotscher, the mineralogist, 29.

Rucu, Bixa orellana, 522, 547, 658.

Ruellia tuberosa, 154, 200.

Rupicola rupicola Linn. (R, aurantia I7ieill.) Cock-of-the-Rock, 891, 923,

941-2.

Rupununi River, 766.
Rupununi and Bio iNegro watershed, 862.
Riippel, Prof., 4.
Ruyschia surubea Sw., 300.

Sackawinki monkey. See Callithrix.

Sacky, Blue and Brown. See Tanagra sayaca and olivascens.

Sago, 463.

Saimiri sciureus Linn. (Callithrix sciurea). Sackawinki, 353, 759.

Salad, 116.

Salempores, 658.

Saltator magnus Gm. (Tanagra magna Linn. Gm.), 201.

Salutation, 306, 499, 523, 555, 804, 892.

Sandbank at Waini mouth, 286-96.

Sandpipers, 290.

Sanitary Police, 98, 120.

Sapodilla. See Achras.

Savannah Fires, 809-11, 827.

Savannah Flora, 854-5

Sawari-nut. See Pekea.

Sawari-palm. See Astrocaryum Jauari.

Saxically Rock, 251.

Schizaea elegans Swartz, 768.

Indeoa to Volume 1. jj97

Schlzaea flabellum Mart.) 768.

Schizaea trilateralis Schk., 768.

Schizodon fasciatus Ayass, 889.

Schnella rubininosa Benth., 784.

Schnella spleudens BMh., 784.

Schoinburgkia crispa, 846.

Schooner, derelict, 582.

Schousboea, 260.

Schiibleria coarctata Benth., 863.

Schultesia brachyptera Chmss., 852.

Schultesia steiiophylla Mart., 852.

Sciadeichthys mesops Cuv. (Bagrus 111.), 365-6.

Scientific Societies, Colonial, 109.

Scissor-bill. See Rhynchops.

Scitaniineae, 320.

Selena, 839.

Scleria flagellum, 842, 852.

Scolopax, 290.

Scomber thynnus. Tunny, 51.

Scoparia dulcis Linn., 863.

Sea- Swallow. See Sterna.

Sea-weed. Experiments with, 48-9.

Securidaca, 260.

Securidaca latifolia Benth., 863.

Securidaca marginata Benth., 727.

Securidaca pubiflora Benth., 863.

Securidaca volubilis Linn., 241 y 391.

Segrae sessiliflora DeC., 541.

Selenidera piperivora Linn. (Pteroglossus piperivorus), 338.

Serrasalmo aureus Spite. Pirai, 754, 808.

Sesbania grandiflora Poir ( Aeschynomene coccinea Linn. A. grandiflora

Linn.), 153.
Sheep 245

Shelter-sheds, 575, 577.
Shield. See Wrestling.
Shillinglaw. Mr., 16.
Ship-Building, Timbers for, 701.
Shirts, Bark, 880.
Sick people neglected, 592-3.
Sideroxyluin inerme Linn., 701, 918.
Simitu. See Passiflora.
Simulia. Kabaura, etc., 777.
Sipanea dichotcma Hunib. Bonp. 888.
Siparuni River, 754.
Siphonia elastica Pers., 541.
Slaves, Emancipation of, 86-89, 96.
Slaves, Revolt of, 80-84.
Sleeping Disease, 917.
Sloanea sinemariensis Aubl., 701.

398 Index to Volume /.

Sloth. See Bradypus.

Suiallipox, 621-2, 675, 678.

Smith, Itev. John, 85.

Smyth's Place, near Waraputa, 729.

Snake-bird. See Plotus.

Snake-tree. See Ophiocaryon.

Snake, Two-lieaded. See Coecilia.

Snipe, 290.

Solanuin, Solaneae, 541, 623

Solanum erythrocarpum Meyer, 200.

Solamim marnmosum Linn., 200.

Solarium verbascifolium, 200.

Songs, Dance, etc., 558.

Sophienburg, Pin., 648.

Sororeng, 732 et seq.

Sonrsop. See Anona muricata.

Spamann, Mr., 246.

Spanish Arawaks, 618-20.

Spanish "launches." Sec Corials.

Spennera aquatica Mart., 320, 781.

Spennera circaeifolia DeC., 781.

Speunera dichotoma Benth., 725.

Spennera disophylla Benth., 725, 758.

Spennera latifolia Benth., 725.

Spermacoce, 494, 541.

Spigelia Schomburgkiana Benth., 753.

Spinach. See Cleome. Phytolacca.

Spondias, 931.

Spondias lutea, 898.

Spoon-bill. See, Platalea.

Stachytarpheta jainaicensiis Va-hl., 154, 200.

Stanhopea, 584.

Stanhopea grandiflora LindL, 528.

Staples, Major: in connection with Artesian Wells, 133.

Steam-bath, 917.

Stemodia foliosa Benth., 863.

Sterculia Ivira, 863.

Sterna magnirostris Livht., Sea Swallow, 725.

Stockle ; Schomburgk's "handy-man," 274, 366.

Stone-marrow, 302.

Strings for Counting. See Time, Computation of.

Strychnos toxifera Schomb. Urari, 891, 939-40.

Sturnella Ludoviciana. S&e S. magna.

Sturnella magna Linn. | S. Ludoviciana), 864, 887.

Stutchbury, Mr., 67.

Suckling babes and animals, 439-40, 520.

Sudis gigas. See Arapainia.

Sugar-cane, 315, 897.

Sugar-cane. Growing and Manufacture, 220* 6.

Indeu to Volume /. 399

Sugar-cane Mill, 486.

Sun-bird. See Eurypyga,

Sun-fish. Sec Lugauaiii.

Swallow. See Hirundo.

Swamp Savannah, 580.

Swartzia grandiflora Benth., 707.

Swartzia tomcntcsa DcC., 41)4, 701.

Syenite, Schistous, 302.

Sylvia cyauoeephala. See Dacnis.

Tabernaemontana alba Mill., 758.

Tabernaeniontana odorata Vahl., 541.

Tachigalia paniculata Aubl., 701.

Tachigalia pubiflora Benth., 707.

Tachypetes aquila. Sec Fregata.

Tachyphonus surinamus Linn. (Tanagra ochropygos (Im.), 339.

Tachyphonus versicolor d'Orb., 339.

Tamarindus indica Linn., 200, 201.

Tambicabo Island, 755.

Tamonea mutica Pers., 781.

Tanagra cayana. See Euphonia.

Tanagra episcopus Linn. ? (T. sayaca Linn.) Blue Sacky, 201.

Tanagra gularis. See Paroaria.

Tanagra jacapa. *Sfce Ehamphocoelus.

Tanagra magna. See Saltator.

Tanagra nigerrima. See Nemosia.

Tanagra ochropygos. See Tachyphontis surinamus.

Tanagra olivascens. See T. palmarum.

Tanagra palmarnm WiecJ. (T. olivaseens Linn.} Brown sjicky, 201, 339.

Tanagra sayaca. See T. episcopns.

Tantalus locnlator Linn. Big Glutton, 887.

Tapacnma Lake, 641.

Tapir Americamis. Maipuri, 842.

Tapura guianensis AuM., 701.

Taquiari or romnti Range, 753.

Tatu, 322, 397, 445, 592.

Tephrosia cinerea Petrs., 781.

Tephrosia toxicaria Per*., 781.

Termites. See Ant.

Testudo arrua Hnml>. tfee Emys amaajonica.

Testudo tabula ta Walb., 922.

Testudo tracaja (T. terekay Numb.) Sec Emys tracaja.

Tetrao, 782.

Tetrao guianensis. »Sffr Odontophorus.

Thalurania furca Bcrl. Hart. (Trochilns furcatus Linn.), 312.

Thatch, 463.

Theatres, Georgetown, 10G.

Theristicus caudatus Wagl. (Ibis albicollis Latl.), 887.

Thevetia nerei folia Juss., 407, 553.

^00 Index to Volume I.

Thread, 463.

Tiaridium indicum Leh., 154, 200.

Tibouchina aspera Aubl., 839, 863.

Tiger-fish. See Platystoma.

Tiger-snake. See Coluber pantherinus.

Tigrosoma brasiliensis (Ardea b. Linn.), 337.

Tigrosoma lineatum Bodd. (Ardea tigrina Gm.), 337.

Tillandsia, 318, 519, 922, 939, 943.

Tillandsia usneoides Linn., 893.

Timbers for Ship-building, 701.

Time, Computation of, 464-5,548-9.

Tinamus tao Tern. (Crypturus t.), Maam, 339, 353.

Tobacco, 456.

Tocoyena longiflora Aubl., 320.

Torenia parviflora Hamilt., 708.

Toucan. See Rhamphastidae.

Town Hall, Georgetown, 103.

Tribal Relationship, 452.

Trichomanes heterophyllum Willd., 768.

Trichomanes pellucens Kunze, 768.

Trichomanes plumula Presl., 768.

Trichospira menthoides Hurtib. Bonp., 781.

Trigonocephalus atrox. See Lachesis.

Triplaris americana Linn.,, 541.

Trochilus campylopterus. See Campylopterus.

Trochilus flavifrons, 864.

Trochilus furcatus. See Thalurania.

Trochilus mango. See Lampornis violicauda.

Trochilus mellivorus. See Florisuga.

Trochilus moschatus. See Chrysolampis.

Trochilus pectoralis. See Lampornis gramineus.

Trochilus petasophorus. See Petasophora.

Trochilus pygmaeus. See Phaethornis.

Trogon melanopterus. See T. viridis.

Trogon melanurus Gould., 747.

Trogon viridis Linn. (T. melanopterus Siv.), 339.

Trombidium sp. See Bete Rouge.

Tropidurus torquatus Wirtf. (Ecphymotes t. Dum.), 854.

Truli palm. See Manicaria.

Trumpet-bird. See Psophia.

Trumpet tree. See Cecropia.

Trnpial. See Cassicus.

Tryothorus. Wren, 243.

Tunny. See Scomber.

Turf-Club, Georgetown, 107, 182-4.

Turnera apifera Mart., 863.

Turnera aurantiaca Mart., 863.

Turnera guianensis Mart., 863 .

Turnera passiflora Betnth., 863.

Index to Volume I. 401

Turtle Eggs, Season, etc., 716, 755.

Turu. See Oenocarpusi

Twasinki Range, 751. .tfMujjji.t

Tyrauuus crudelis. Me*' T. melancholicus.

Tyrannus flavus. See; Pitangus sulphuratus.

Tyraunus lictor. See Pitangus lictor.

Tyrannus melancholicus VieilL (T. onidelis 8w.), 201.

Tyrannus sulphuratns. Fee Pitaugus sulphuratus. > ,ii«

U«a uua Afarg., 575.

ricides cordatus Linn. (Cancer c.), 575.

Ucriana Humboldtii ti-preng., 494.

Umbrella Ant. tfee Cushy Ant.

Unxia camphorata Linn., 803.

TTraniae, 311.

Urari, Ourari, Wurali, etc., 1)45-961. See Strychnos.

Vuuipire. See Phyllostonia.

Van Gunthern. Manager of Greenwich Park, 670, 6(J3.

Vanilla aroniatica Mw. (V. gnianensis Splity.), 300, 510.

Vaqueiros, 875-7.

Vespa niorio, V. uidulans, 5(^7.

"Victoria," Corial of the I^xpeditioii, 273, 086, 099.

Victoria regia SvJiftml)., 797.

Vine-rope. See Hush-rope.

Violin, 404.

Vississi duck. See Anas viduata.

Vitex capitata VnJiJ., 763.

Vitex umbrosa 8w., 703.

Vochysia guianensis AiiW., 541, 725.

Vogel, Dr. Lender of Expedition to the Niger, 29.

Voigstedt: SchomburgVs home, T.

Vultur |)apn Linn. King Vulture. See Gypagns papa Linn.

• Wai hah i. See Murder charge.
Wai-ipukari Inlet. 836-7.
Waika. See Akawai.
Waiui Mouth, Sandbank at, 280-90.
Waini River, 575.
Waltheria. involucrata Benth., 781.
Walton, Mr. : Artist to the Expedition, 31, 210.
Wandering Ants, 643.
Waraputa Mission, 730-39.
War clubs, 787, 914.
Warina Village, 503.
[Warracabra]. See Psophia.

Warrau Indians. Physical Characteristics, 304, 322-3.
Warrau Indians. Manners, Customs, 430-66.
Warrau Indians. Religious Beliefs, 453-60.

Index to Volume I.

Wassi Poison, 744, 967.

Water-dog, See Lutra.

Water haas. See Hydrochaerus.

Weapons, Manufacture of, 914.

WTedelia hiapida II umb. Bonp., 888,

Weiburg, Lieut., 853.

Weyra. See Laeis.

Whipping for Fish, 721.

Wliouiana River, 571.

Widowhood, 598.

William. Warrau Chief of Aruka River, 30b-b, 327-fe,

\Mnd80v Castle, Pin., 22G.

Witch, Old. tiec Orotophaga.

Woodpecker, 339.

Wood skin, G65.

Woman's Work, 434-6, 563.

Wren, 248.

Wrestling-, 524-5.

Writing; and Reading, 885.

Wulfia platygloesa DeC., 868.

Xiphidinm, 541.

Xiphostoma Cnvieri. Nee Hydrocynis.

Yaku. 8&e Penelope cristata.

Yam. See Dioscorea.

Yawahu. See Hebu.

Yellow Fever, 206-9, 672-4, 676.

Youd, Rev., 252, 718, 730, 856, 884.

Zeelandia, Pin., 212-8, 272.

Zingiberaceae, 937.

Tangiber officinale, Rose, 116.

Zoological Gardens. London, 22.

Zygopetalum, 584.

ZyjjopetalTim rostratiim Hook., 369. 392, 611.

017820026

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